Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: Clinical Implications for Patients With Lung Cancer.
Brandi R Newsome, Karen McDonnell, Jennifer Hucks and 1 others
PMID 29547609WHAT IT FOUND
Patients with lung cancer and COPD need nursing care that checks inhaler technique, supports smoking cessation, confirms low blood oxygen before oxygen therapy, promotes pulmonary rehabilitation, and monitors symptoms and quality of life.
Key findings
01Smoking cessation counseling, even brief, is reported to produce quit rates of 5% to 10%.
02Half of patients with COPD had incorrect inhaler technique, so the review suggests in-person training and materials written at a basic reading level.
03One cited study found pulmonary rehabilitation before and after lung cancer resection was associated with better lung function, better walk distance, 54% smoking cessation, and fewer postoperative complications.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
This is not a systematic review, so the paper does not show how evidence was selected. It has no original participants or primary outcome. Many recommendations rely on cited studies or expert guidelines rather than a new trial. The oxygen and pulmonary rehabilitation findings come from specific patient groups, including people with COPD and lung cancer, so they may not apply to every breathless patient.
The easy way to misread this
Do not give oxygen for breathlessness alone. It is recommended only for documented hypoxemia. In patients who did not desaturate at rest or during walking, oxygen made no difference to survival, exacerbations, quality of life, walk distance, or lung function.