Pulmonary Rehabilitation in Multimorbidity and Multiple Disabilities.
In Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease patients, it has been proven that
Pulmonary Rehabilitation helps in increasing the exercise ability, in easing the difficulty
in breathing, in improving Health Related – Quality of Life and in decreasing the
period in hospital and the utilization of medical resources.
Although there is insufficient evidence to determine whether PR improves survival in
patients with COPD, this lack of evidence does not necessarily indicate that PR has no effect on survival, but in order to be reasonably powered to detect an effect of this magnitude the sample size would have to be a magnitude larger than those found in existing studies.
Moreover, PR program significantly showed a large decrease in the risk of death in
rehabilitated patients as measured using the BODE index. The timed walk distance and MRC-rated dyspnea do improve with PR, and these variables are correlated with survival in patients with COPD.
In contrast, Cardiac Rehabilitation improves prognosis, exercise capacity, QoL of patients by reducing symptoms associated
with Activities of Daily Living in patients with ischemic heart failure and Coronary Artery Disease.
Moreover, Renal Rehabilitation including exercise training in patients with hemodialysis improves in VO2 max, left ventricular function, cardiac sympathetic and parasympathetic disharmony, malnutrition-inflammation-atherosclerosis syndrome, anemia, sleep quality, anxiety, HR-QoL, activities of daily living, shunt size, Kt/V and mortality.
Until a recent date, medicine has aimed to prolong the life expectancy; that is, “Adding Years to Life” has been the focus of the medicine.
Pulm Res Respir Med Open J. 2015; 2(2): e1-e2. doi: 10.17140/PRRMOJ-2-e001
