Handbook of Pulmonary Rehabilitation

In the last three decades, Pulmonary Rehabilitation (PR) has become a cornerstone in the comprehensive management of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and other chronic respiratory diseases in adults and children, supported by solid physiological bases and wide scientific evidence, with randomised controlled trials, meta-analysis and several guidelines. PR programs are customised to the needs of each patient and carried out by a multidisciplinary team of healthcare specialists (medical specialists in medical rehabilitation and pulmonology, functional explorations, geriatric physicians, nurses, physiotherapists, nutritionists, psychologists, respiratory therapists, occupational therapists, bioengineers, pharmacologists, in collaboration with a family doctor and pharmacists). As a comprehensive intervention, PR involves good collaboration and communication between team members, thus ensuring maximum comfort and benefit to the patient. PR programs improve the quality of life of patients by increasing their degree of independence and reducing the number of exacerbations, the days of hospitalisation due to them, and costs. PR has the ability to reduce symptomatic burden, in particular dyspnea, and muscle deconditioning. In turn, it can increase exercise capacity, reduce anxiety and depression, and improve patients' psycho-emotional status and social reintegration. PR is the standard of care for patients with chronic lung diseases motivated to participate in the rehabilitation program to become more physically active and more independent, being an integral part of clinical management and maintaining health.