Abstract
Background/Objectives: Manual therapy (MT) has been proposed in pulmonary rehabilitation programmes for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but an updated systematic review of the evidence is lacking. We aimed to systematically review the effectiveness of MT interventions, alone or added to exercise, on lung function, exercise capacity and quality of life in COPD patients. Methods/Statistical analysis: We searched PubMed, PEDro, CochraneLibrary, using the terms: COPD manual therapy, COPD AND manual therapy. Only randomised controlled trials (RCT) were considered. Findings: Out of 168 articles screened, 6 fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Sample sizes varied from under 20 to over 200 participants ranging in age from 50 to over 60 years. ALL of the six studies reported improvements in lung function and exercise performance following MT intervention. Improvements/Applications: This review provides a methodologic evaluation of the evidence for using MT in the management of COPD. While the quality of the evidence provided by six experimental study was high, they were most of small sample sizes. These results highlight the need for further research into the use of MT in conjunction with exercise on people with COPD.
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