Effect of Physiotherapy in Hospitalized COPD Patients

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. It is a progressive disease, characterized by lung function impairment with airway obstruction. Patients with COPD suffer exacerbations; the frequency of these exacerbations increases with the severity of the disease. It has been previously shown that the level of health-related quality of life of COPD subjects deteriorates considerably with increasing severity of disease and that the deterioration is linearly related to a decrease in FEV1 % predicted normal values.