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Pulmonary Rehabilitation: An Interdisciplinary Approach

Pisa, Italy

Pulmonary Rehabilitation: An Interdisciplinary Approach
Edited by R. Garrod
Published by WHURR Pub, London
Pages: 206. Price: £20.25 (special price for ERS members), 29.13. ISBN 1-86-156-421-X

Up until the 1980s, pulmonary rehabilitation was considered to be, at best, slightly more than psychotherapy or, at worst, alternative or complementary medicine. At that time, it was almost a punishment to be chosen to deal with this area by the head of your department. Nevertheless, a few years later, as in all good novels, the ugly duck became a beautiful swan and the frog became a prince. Aprince with his fairy. One such "pulmonary rehabilitation fairy" is Rachel Garrod, who works with one of the most prestigious teams in pulmonology. Rachel is a rare example of the concept that, whatever your role, medical doctor or physiotherapist, if you are passionate about a topic (as she confesses in the preface of the book), no goal will be precluded.

When I was asked by the European Respiratory Journal to review this book, my first feeling was "Oh my God, not another book on pulmonary rehabilitation" (especially as I had just finished another one). However, I tried to fulfil my commitment and found that I actually enjoyed it.

This small comprehensive book covers the advancement of pulmonary rehabilitation and lets us look to the future in a light of modernity; it is nothing to do with alternative medicine. Every statement in the book is supported, or tries to be, by evidence-based medicine. In actual fact, there is a range of material to work with. If you search for "pulmonary rehabilitation" in titles using Medline, you will find 108 references in the period 1966–1981 (4.4·yr-1) and 413 in 1982-2004 (18.7·yr-1). This shows that there is a growing interest in the field of pulmonary rehabilitation and this book helps to satisfy it.

A series of well-known and esteemed international authors contributed to this book and approached the tasks an operator in the field usually faces: the selection of patients, exercise prescription and training, physiological evaluation, single components of pulmonary rehabilitation programmes, cost-effectiveness, and future perspectives. Each issue is dealt with by authors who have actually worked in that specific field and not by those who have only read the papers.

If I could find one topic that was lacking, I would say it was the physiotherapeutic approach in the intensive care unit, a boundary that is crossed more and more often in the practical management of patients with respiratory failure.

In conclusion, there is something to learn from reading this book. I would recommend it to those who want be introduced to pulmonary rehabilitation.

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Ambrosino, N. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Ambrosino, N.