Effect of upper extremity exercise in people with COPD.

Background: Exercise for people with COPD has focused on leg training, such as walking and cycling. The role and effectiveness of arm training has not been investigated in detail. This review was undertaken to examine the literature for the effectiveness of upper extremity exercise on arm exercise capacity and arm strength in people with COPD.

Hospice: rehabilitation in reverse.

Hospice care is about quality of life at a time when a person has an illness for which curative measures are no longer possible, and for which a physician has determined the patient has a life expectancy of about six months or less, a hospice program can support the process of death and dying in a compassionate way. A growing trend is to utilize physical therapy more frequently in hospice. Physical therapy has several vital roles in hospice care as follows: maximizing functional ability and comfort to enhance quality of life; assuring patient and care giver safety; helping people redesign their lives and life goals; providing support around physical, emotional and spiritual issues at the end of life.

Dyspnea in lung cancer patients: a systematic review.

Dyspnea is a common and distressing symptom experienced by 19%-51% of patients with advanced cancer. Higher incidences are reported in patients approaching end of life. While the prevalence of dyspnea has been reported to be as frequent as pain in people with lung cancer, less attention has been paid to the distress associated with dyspnea.