Effect of Telerehabilitation in a Patient with Pulmonary Tuberculosis: A Case Study

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the top communicable diseases responsible for more deaths worldwide. Patients with pulmonary TB (PTB) suffer from lung damage, including fibrosis, cavitation, muscle weakness, and other radiological changes, leading to decreased lung function, quality of life (QoL), breathlessness, and physical and psychological impairments. So, the Present case study of a 58-year-old female with sputum-positive PTB suffering from breathing difficulties after the start of anti-TB treatment (ATT) was given online pulmonary rehabilitation therapy. The present study aimed at assessing the effect of yoga and respiratory care therapy (RCT) on PTB patients. This study is unique and rare in terms of integrating two rehabilitation therapies—yoga and RCT for the betterment of patient care. The patient was administered 45 minutes of yoga and 15 minutes of RCT per day for 8 weeks and baseline and postdata were collected. Results after 8 weeks of telerehabilitation therapies were found to be positive compared to baseline parameters. In short, this case report highlights the potential benefits of telerehabilitation as a dual complementary therapy in patients with PTB along with a standard of care to improve the saturation of peripheral oxygen (SpO2) saturation levels, breath holding time, Borg rating of perceived exertion (RPE) scale scores, 6-minute walk test, and decreased heart rate. Future studies planned with more sample sizes, multicentric in nature, and randomized control trials can be planned to warrant the results.