Management of breathlessness and pulmonary rehabilitation

Abstract

Rehabilitation for people disabled by breathlessness is one of the most rewarding aspects of physiotherapy, yet it is one of the most neglected. It is rewarding because it can provide real improvement in the lives of people who have become entangled in a web of inactivity, low self-esteem and helplessness. It is neglected because of a widespread attitude that patients have reached a dead end. Physiotherapists themselves may feel helpless when faced with someone who has uncontrolled breathlessness, lungs like tissue paper, a pessimistic outlook, an unglamorous disease, and no nice straightforward problem such as excess sputum which can be dealt with by time-honoured techniques.

No patient is ‘too sick’ or ‘too well’ to benefit from a pulmonary rehabilitation program.

Menier 1994