Pulmonary rehabilitation: a year in review

Educational aims To present innovative papers from the field of pulmonary rehabilitation published in 2005 and to discuss the important points and conclusions from each. Summary This paper summarises the findings of important papers that have been published over the last year. Two recently published studies have addressed the effects of different durations of pulmonary rehabilitation programme (PRP), indicating the greater benefits obtained by longer programmes. Three other papers have described the effects of pulmonary rehabilitation on pulmonary mechanics and oxidative stress, indicating that exercise is able to reduce the mechanical disadvantage of the respiratory system and some aspects of oxidative stress associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Other papers have discussed the effects of a number of breathing strategies, such as pursed-lip breathing (PLB), or training techniques, such as arm or inspiratory muscle training. Finally, the addition of drug therapy to pulmonary rehabilitation and the role of outcome measures in providing rehabilitation programmes were examined in two other studies.