TY - JOUR T1 - Pulmonary rehabilitation in Long-COVID – more than just natural recovery !? JF - ERJ Open Research JO - erjor DO - 10.1183/23120541.00454-2021 SP - 00454-2021 AU - Rainer Gloeckl AU - Daniela Leitl AU - Inga Jarosch AU - Tessa Schneeberger AU - Christoph Nell AU - Nikola Stenzel AU - Ayham Daher AU - Michael Dreher AU - Claus F. Vogelmeier AU - Klaus Kenn AU - Andreas R. Koczulla Y1 - 2021/01/01 UR - http://openres.ersjournals.com/content/early/2021/07/15/23120541.00454-2021.abstract N2 - Although a large proportion of COVID-19 patients recovers fully from the disease, approximately 5% to 10% experience prolonged symptoms for several months following the acute COVID-19 phase [2–4]. This results in millions of people suffering from COVID-19 sequelae worldwide. Therefore, beneficial interventions are urgently needed to counteract these long-term consequences. A Cochrane review from April 2021 identified more than 50 studies that investigated rehabilitative interventions in post-COVID patients [5]. Amongst them are two randomized, controlled trials that included 72 and 140 post-acute patients, respectively, showing that respiratory techniques have superior benefits beyond natural recovery to improve pulmonary function, exercise performance, quality of life, and anxiety, especially in combination with group psychological interventions [6, 7]. However, we admit, that there is currently no randomized, controlled trial available that investigated the effects of a more comprehensive, multidisciplinary pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) program in COVID-19.FootnotesThis manuscript has recently been accepted for publication in the ERJ Open Research. It is published here in its accepted form prior to copyediting and typesetting by our production team. After these production processes are complete and the authors have approved the resulting proofs, the article will move to the latest issue of the ERJOR online. Please open or download the PDF to view this article.Conflict of interest: Dr. Gloeckl has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Leitl has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Jarosch has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Schneeberger has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Nell has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Stenzel has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Daher has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Dreher has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Vogelmeier has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Kenn has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Koczulla has nothing to disclose. ER -