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. 2024 Feb 19;21(2):242.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph21020242.

Safety and Efficacy of Pulmonary Rehabilitation for Long COVID Patients Experiencing Long-Lasting Symptoms

Espérance Moine  1 , Virginie Molinier  1 , Adriana Castanyer  2 , Amandine Calvat  3 , Guillaume Coste  2 , Antonin Vernet  2 , Audrey Faugé  3 , Perrine Magrina  3 , Joan Lluis Aliaga-Parera  2 , Nicolas Oliver  1   3 , François Alexandre  1 , Nelly Heraud  1
Affiliations

Safety and Efficacy of Pulmonary Rehabilitation for Long COVID Patients Experiencing Long-Lasting Symptoms

Espérance Moine et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Due to the high prevalence and persistence of long COVID, it is important to evaluate the safety and efficacy of pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) for patients who experience long-lasting symptoms more than six months after initial COVID-19 onset. Enrolled patients were admitted for a four-week in-patient-PR due to long COVID symptoms (n = 47). The safety of PR was confirmed by the absence of adverse events. Symptom-related outcomes were evaluated pre- and post-PR with significant score changes for: 6 min walking distance (61 [28 to 103] m), quality of life (mental Short Form-12: 10 [6 to 13], and physical: 9 [6 to 12]), Montreal Cognitive Assessment (1 [0 to 3]), fatigue (MFI-20: -19 [-28 to -8]), dyspnea (DYSPNEA-12: -7 [-9 to -2] and mMRC; -1 [-1 to 0]), Nijmegen questionnaire (-8 [-11 to -5]), anxiety and depression (HADS:-4 [-5 to -2] and -2 [-4 to -1], respectively) and posttraumatic stress disorder checklist scale (-8 [-12 to -4]). At the individual level, the percentage of symptomatic patients for each outcome decreased, with a high response rate, and the number of persistent symptoms per patient was reduced from six at PR initiation to three at the end of the program. Our results show that in-PR is safe and efficient at decreasing long-lasting symptoms experienced by long COVID patients at more than six months after initial disease onset.

Keywords: MCIDs; long COVID; multidisciplinary intervention; post-COVID-19 syndrome; treatability.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart of the study.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Histogram representing the percentage of symptomatic patients at T1 (pre-PR) and T2 (post-PR). PR: Pulmonary Rehabilitation. Exercise intolerance (n = 44); Muscle weakness (n = 26); Altered physical QoL (n = 38); Altered mental QoL (n = 38); Fatigue (n = 38); Dyspnea impact (n = 19); Hyperventilation (n = 34); Anxiety (n = 25); Depression (n = 25); Posttraumatic stress disorder (n = 31); Impaired cognition (n = 32).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Histogram of the percentage of responders for the evaluated outcomes among the treatable patients. PR: Pulmonary Rehabilitation. Exercise tolerance (n = 25); Muscle strength (n = 17); Physical QoL (quality of life) (n = 36); Mental QoL (quality of life) (n = 25); Fatigue (n = 32); Dyspnea impact (n = 9); Anxiety (n = 20); Depression (n = 12); Posttraumatic stress disorder (n = 14); Cognition (n = 9).
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