A case report of roflumilast in an elderly COPD patient: improving exercise capacity to improve quality of life

This report describes a case of a 73-year-old man with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) grade D. His walking abilities were seriously compromised due to chronic respiratory failure and arthrosis causing chronic joint pain. The patient frequently experienced exacerbation events, requiring hospitalization. After roflumilast therapy was started, the patient gradually regained the ability to move autonomously, and FEV1 values gradually increased too. This led to a general improvement of the patient’s quality of life (QoL), underlining how important movement abilities are in determining a patient’s QoL and how roflumilast therapy is effective in improving exercise capacity in a patient with COPD.