In patients with more severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the benefits of rehabilitation might not be clear and, therefore, new treatment options have been developed to increase the benefits of rehabilitation. This review provides an overview of new approaches being developed as an addition to exercise training. In turn, the benefits of adding ventilatory support, oxygen, anabolics or neuromuscular stimulation to a rehabilitation programme will be discussed. While positive benefits for a number of these approaches have been found, many questions remain unsolved. Therefore, at present, we cannot recommend these new tools as part of the routine management of patients with COPD who start a rehabilitation programme.KEYWORDS: Anabolics, neuromuscular stimulation, oxygen, rehabilitation, ventilatory support C urrent literature has shown that pulmonary rehabilitation is effective in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by improving dyspnoea, exercise tolerance and quality of life [1][2][3]. However, in patients with more severe COPD the benefits of rehabilitation might be less; therefore, new treatment options have been developed to increase rehabilitation results. In this review, we will provide an overview of the new approaches to pulmonary rehabilitation that are an addition to exercise training.
VENTILATORY SUPPORT DURING EXERCISE OR EXERCISE TRAININGAdvanced COPD is generally characterised by severe airflow limitation, which is frequently associated with hyperinflation. This will especially worsen during exercise when the absence of any flow reserve requires the subject to breath at a higher lung volume to adjust to the increased ventilatory requirements. The work of breathing will be increased, primarily to overcome the intrinsic positive end-expiratory pressures. As during exercise, the increased ventilatory requirements are difficult to sustain, new approaches are needed to assist patients with the mechanical output during exercise. During recent decades, a number of studies have investigated this topic by applying different types of ventilator support during exercise. In 1990, PETROF et al.[4] demonstrated that continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) reduced inspiratory muscle effort, as indicated by the pressure-time integral of transdiaphragmatic and oesophageal pressure. In addition, they found that dyspnoea improved with CPAP in five out of the eight patients and that the amelioration of dyspnoea was directly related to reductions in the pressure-time integral of the oesophageal pressure. O'DONNELL et al. [5] showed that by applying 4-5 cmH 2 O of CPAP to patients with COPD (mean forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) 1.2 L), less breathlessness was experienced during steady-state submaximal exercise. In addition, they showed that similar levels of CPAP administered to patients with even more severe COPD (mean FEV1 0.9 L) improved the patient's endurance capacity during constant power cycle exercise by 48% [6]. A study comparing inspiratory pressure suppo...