Effect of Pulmonary Rehabilitation Protocol after Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Exacerbation

exacerbation. Aim: to find out the effect of pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) on exacerbations in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients. Research design: Quasi-experimental with one group (pre-post) research design. Subjects and methods: A purposive sample of 60 adult patients diagnosed with COPD exacerbation. A study was conducted in the chest department and outpatient clinic at Assiut University Hospital. Tools: Three tools were utilized; a Patient assessment sheet, a Modified Medical Research Council Dyspnea Scale (mMRC), and St. George’s Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) Results: The mean age of the studied patients was 57.28±6.88, 67.5% of patients were males, and more than half of the patient's participants were overweight 56.7%. Post implementing the pulmonary rehabilitation protocol a significant decrease in Modified Medical Research Council Dyspnea Scale (mMRC) was found post-intervention compared with that pre-intervention (P = ≤ 0.001). There was a statistically significant difference between prepost pulmonary rehabilitation protocol reflected a positive influence on patients' levels of dyspnea which in turn improved their health related quality of life in all dimensions of the St, GORG scale (symptoms, activity and impact of the disease) (P = ≤ 0.001). Conclusion: This study showed that pulmonary rehabilitation could reduce dyspnea of patients with COPD and improve the health related quality of life. Recommendation: A simple chart about pulmonary rehabilitation should be provided for each patient to control episodes of COPD exacerbation.