Short-Term Pulmonary Rehabilitation Among Post-Pulmonary Tuberculosis Patients During Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic

OBJECTIVE: Coronavirus disease 2019 is expected to have a widespread and significant impact on pulmonary tuberculosis services. This study aims to investigate the effect of comprehensive short-term, outpatient pulmonary rehabilitation program among treated pulmonary tuberculosis patients during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Forty-five pulmonary tuberculosis patients who completed their tuberculosis treatment were randomly allocated to the outpatient pulmonary rehabilitation group and the other 45 were allocated to the control group for 4 weeks. The pulmonary rehabilitation program comprised supervised endurance and resistance training, breathing techniques, self-management strategies, and patient education. The outcome measures evaluated in both groups were functional capacity assessed by a 6-minute walk test, health-related quality of life (short-form 36 questionnaire), pulmonary function (forced expiratory volume in 1 second/forced vital capacity, forced vital capacity, and forced expiratory volume in 1 second), and dyspnea by modified Medical Research Council dyspnea scale. All measurements were performed at enrolment and after completion of 4 weeks protocol in both the groups. RESULTS: There was a significant improvement in 6-minute walk distance in meters (P = .001) and percentage predicted (P = .014) in the pulmonary rehabilitation group compared to the control group. All domains of the short-form 36 questionnaire showed significant improvement post-pulmonary rehabilitation (P < 0.05), and modified Medical Research Council dyspnea scale also significantly improved in the pulmonary rehabilitation group (P < .001). However, no significant differences were observed in any of the pulmonary function measures (P > .05) between the groups after 4 weeks. CONCLUSION: Short-term pulmonary rehabilitation program in pulmonary tuberculosis demonstrated improvement in functional capacity, quality of life, and dyspnea. However, it failed to register changes in pulmonary function. The study results provide motivation to consider the implementation of a short-term pulmonary rehabilitation program after pulmonary tuberculosis treatment to reduce the impairment the patient may suffer even after microbiological cure.