Exercise capacity and pulmonary function of school age children with a history of bronchopulmonary dysplasia: a systematic review

Abstract

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is a chronic respiratory disease accused by the need of oxygen and / or mechanical ventilation in the neonatal period. The resulting lung injury of BPD may lead to changes in lung function, with flow limitation and increased airway resistance, which may persist throughout childhood and adolescence to adulthood. Objective: conduct a systematic review studies that evaluated lung function and exercise capacity in school-age children with BPD. Method: we performed systematic searches of three electronic databases Scielo, PEDro and MEDLINE Ovid, being selected articles published up to january 2014. That assessed pulmonary function and exercise capacity in school-age children with bronchopulmonary dysplasia. Results: through the search strategies 376 titles related to the topic were found, after analysis of the inclusion criteria, only five were selected to compose the final sample. Conclusion: children with a history of BPD have variable airflow obstruction at school age and can reach lower maximal values of oxygen, minute volume and tidal volume during exercise. Still, there is no influence lung function on exercise capacity in this population