Abstract
Dyspnea and reduced exercise capacity negatively affect the quality of life in many Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients with emphysema phenotype. Surgical procedures may be preferred in cases where improvement in respiratory functions cannot be achieved despite pharmacological treatments. These surgical operations are bullectomy, lung transplantation, lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS) or bronchoscopic lung volume reduction (BLVR). Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) is a well-established and widely accepted standard therapy in order to alleviate symptoms and optimize pulmonary functions. It is stated in the guidelines and reports that receiving of PR before the bronchoscopic interventions is a necessity. Moreover, there are very few studies on this subject. In this review, PR will be discussed in relation to BLVR.
Keywords
Coil, Dyspnea, Exercise, Physiotherapy, Valve