Chest
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Review Meta Analysis
Pulmonary rehabilitation as a mechanism to reduce hospitalizations for acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD) has a significant impact on health-care use, including physician visits and hospitalizations. Previous studies and reviews have shown that pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) has many benefits, but the effect on hospitalizations for AECOPD is inconclusive. ⋯ Although results from RCTs suggested that PR reduces subsequent admissions, pooled results from the cohort studies did not, likely reflecting the heterogeneous nature of individuals included in observational research and the varying standard of PR programs.