Pulmonary Rehabilitation and Physiotherapy Management of Respiratory Conditions in Patient with COVID-19: Narrative Review

COVID-19 is a disease caused by a novel type of coronavirus which primarily affects the respiratory system , induces mild pulmonary symptoms (e.g cough and dyspnea), is easily recovered and causes pneumonia in severe cases. It gets to admit the patientsin the intensive care unit. Physiotherapy and pulmonary rehabilitation play an important role in improving respiratory function andclearance of airway secretions by chest physiotherapy and breathing exercises techniques.

The present study aimed to summarize applied information and make patients and caregivers aware of effective pulmonary physiotherapy methods to reduce symptoms of pulmonary involvement, improve respiratory function and reduce the length of stay in intensive care units.

In this review, PubMed, Google Scholar, Science direct and SID databases were used to search for articles with keywords suhc as Breathing exercises,/Chest therapy “AND” pulmonary/,Respiratory disease/,COVID-19 OR Coronavirus.

Based on the guideline on the treatment of COVID-19 patients released for physiotherapists in March 2020 , cardiopulmonary physiotherapy focuses on the treatment and rehabilitation of patients with acute and chronic respiratory conditions, and improves the physical fitness of those who had the disease. Thus, physiotherapy can play an effective role in respiratory and physical rehabilitation of patients with COVID 19.