Effective Treatment Program for COPD Patients Undergoing Rehabilitation

. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients are at higher risk of adverse outcomes during lung cancer surgery due to the presence of pre-existing lung damage. Preoperative intervention in the form of rehabilitation program has been studied with mixed results. Hence, the current study aims to find out the effect of preoperative pulmonary rehabilitation amongst COPD patients during lung surgery. Systematic search was done in Medline, CINAHL, Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar. The timepoint for search was from 1964 to January 2023. Pooled meta-analysis findings were reported as standardised mean difference (SMD) for continuous outcomes andrisk ratio (RR) for categorical outcome. Eleven studies were included in the analysis. Most studies had higher risk of bias.The estimated pooled SMD for forced expiratory volume-1 was 0.06 (95% CI:-0.17 to 0.29); for 6-min walking distance, the pooled SMD was 0.42 (95% CI:-0.36 to 1.19); for length of hospital stay, pooled SMD was-0.60 (95% CI:-1.15 to-0.05). The pooled RR for postoperative pulmonary complications was 0.42 (95% CI: 0.30-0.57). In summary, preoperative pulmonary rehabilitation is effective in reducing the postoperative pulmonary complications and shortens the length of hospital stay amongst COPD patients undergoing thoracic surgery.