BMJ  2005;330:480 (26 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7489.480-a

Letter

Pulmonary rehabilitation and readmissions in COPD

Hospital readmissions did not fall

The first 100% of the full text of this article appears below.

EDITOR—Man et al provide impressive data pertaining to the substantial benefits of early community based pulmonary rehabilitation after hospitalisation for acute exacerbations in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).¹

A dissociation is, however, apparent between clinical benefits and hospital readmissions, in which no significant difference for readmissions was observed when usual care was compared with early rehabilitation. The authors state that over the past decade, admissions for COPD exacerbations have soared by 50%, further burdening the NHS. However, their data do not support that early pulmonary rehabilitation would serve to lessen this burden.

Could the authors speculate why the considerable improvements observed in most of the outcome measures failed to translate into a significant reduction in hospital readmissions?

Ipswich Hospital, Ipswich IP4 5PD dkclee@doctors.org.uk

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Competing interests: None declared.

1. Man WD, Polkey MI, Donaldson N, Gray BJ, Moxham J. Community pulmonary rehabilitation after hospitalisation for acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: randomised controlled study. BMJ 2004;329: 1209-11. (20 November.)[Abstract/Free Full Text]

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Relevant Article

Community pulmonary rehabilitation after hospitalisation for acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: randomised controlled study

William D-C Man, Michael I Polkey, Nora Donaldson, Barry J Gray, and John Moxham
BMJ 2004 329: 1209. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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