Rehabilitation of People With Post-tuberculosis Lung Disease

A 12-week rehabilitation program, 3X/week. Each outpatient session will last 2 hours including: guidance on the care of inhalation techniques and/or oxygen therapy, when prescribed; aerobic training on a cycle ergometer supervised by a physiotherapist (30 min each: 5 min warm-up, 20 min training and 5 min cool-down) at constant load calculated with Hill's equation (HILL et al., 2008). Optional components of RP will include: inspiratory muscle conditioning using a threshold-loading device, inspiratory muscle training with powerbreathe, breathing exercises, airway clearance, psychological support, relaxation and nutritional counseling. Patients will participate in two group educational sessions, managed by a respiratory physiotherapist, on lifestyle, physical activity and maintenance programs (VISCA et al., 2019; FUGAZZARO et al., 2017; TENCONI et al., 2021).

Participants will receive standard care (SC): a therapeutic education session upon admission, as well as pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) taught by a physical therapist. This therapeutic educational session will involve counseling and self-care management, emphasizing breathing exercises and sputum clearance and self-care techniques. It will consist of smoking cessation education (if this is the case, as tobacco is associated with TB), respiratory retraining (pursed lip breathing, diaphragmatic breathing and segmental breathing) and secretion removal training (coughing exercise, huffing , assisted cough and postural drainage).