Physiotherapeutic interventions in patients with decompensated COPD

a retrospective study

Abstract

Introduction: COPD is defined as a preventable and treatable disease, characterized by progressive airflow limitation. It is estimated that in Brazil it is the respiratory disease with the greatest cause of mobimortality in adults. Patients who undergo pulmonary rehabilitation need less visits to the doctor caused by exacerbations and when they are hospitalized, they stay for less time, there is a consequent increase in the quality of life and an improvement in the ability to perform physical exercises. Objectives: to describe physical therapy interventions and their outcomes in patients with COPD. Methods: this is a retrospective observational study, through the analysis of medical records with data from January to December 2019 in a tertiary hospital in DF. Results: the result showed a majority of male individuals (63%) with a mean age of 72.4 years. In addition, the average length of stay was 5.56 days and 44.4% of individuals had other comorbidities associated with COPD. Most patients used NIMV (18.5%) and 14.8% used MV. Approximately 11% of patients admitted to the Emergency Room died. VMNI was used as the main physical therapy resource together with early mobilization. Conclusion: VMNI was used as the main physical therapy resource together with early mobilization and the higher occurrence of failure can be justified by the fact that patients are more severe, with associated severe comorbidities and older age.