Home based rehabilitation for patients with COPD: an attractive alternative

Pulmonary rehabilitation programs are well established to provide a multidisciplinary approach to control and alleviate symptoms and to optimise functional capacity in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In the last decade a large number of studies have investigated the effects of pulmonary rehabilitation in the home setting. A meta-analysis on respiratory rehabilitation showed that home based rehabilitation could be equally effective in improving functional status and quality of life as compared to inpatient rehabilitation. It has been shown that these programs can improve exercise capacity, dyspnoea and quality of life. Therefore home based rehabilitation is an attractive alternative for patients with COPD. For patients with incapacitating dyspnoea, neuroelectrical muscle stimulation in the home setting seems to be an attractive approach for the future.