ZuWallack - Figure 36
Even if PR Does Work Following Exacerbations...
FIG. 36: Another conclusion from the preceding analyses must be that even if pulmonary rehabilitation does work following exacerbations, it is woefully underutilized. This Figure shows data from a single center study that looked patients who were hospitalized and then discharged following a COPD exacerbation.[27] The initial recruitment included >400 patients; however only 69% were eligible for pulmonary rehabilitation, and after many potential enrollees dropped out, etc, only a few more than 9% of all the patients discharged after a COPD exacerbation eventually got a complete pulmonary rehabilitation intervention. This underlines the importance of improving the uptake of pulmonary rehabilitation in this setting, which will depend not just on clinicians but also on third party payers, health administrators, politicians, etc.
References
Jones SE, Green SA, Clark AL, et al. Pulmonary rehabilitation following hospitalisation for acute exacerbation of COPD: referrals, update and adherence. Thorax 2014;69:181–182.
