The management of bronchial secretions is one of the main problems encountered in a wide spectrum of medical conditions ranging from respiratory disorders, neuromuscular disorders and patients undergoing either thoracic or abdominal surgery. The purpose of this review is illustrate to the reader the different ACTs currently available and the related evidence present in literature. Alongside methods with a strong background behind as postural drainage, manual techniques or PEP systems, the current orientation is increasingly aimed at devices that can mobilize and / or remove secretions. Cough Assist, Vacuum Techniques, systems that modulate airflow have more and more scientific evidence. Different principles combination is a new field of investigation that goes toward an increasing of clinical complexity that will facing us.

HighlightsPatients with chronic hypersecretion (CH) of tracheobronchial mucus are a clinical challenge. They have an impaired quality of life, frequent exacerbations, and hospitalizations with need of antibiotics and other type of expensive treatments.Chest physical therapy evolved along the last decades and new techniques are currently used to help patients clear the airways efficiently. Among these airway clearance techniques (ACTs), the use of positive expiratory pressure (PEP) is considered one of the most effective.We report the retrospective evaluation of 162 patients with CH due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or bronchiectasis undergoing ACT in our Pulmonary Rehabilitation Department. They were treated either with PEP or with a new PEP device called UNIKO®, which applies PEP in a temporary manner (TPEP).Comparing the two groups of patients, both treatments (i.e., PEP and TPEP) were followed by great improvements in physiological parameters of spirometry and gas exchange. However, subdividing patients, it was evident that TPEP had better effects than PEP in patients with emphysema and in patients on long-term oxygen treatment, while PEP was superior at least in some parameters in patients on mechanical ventilation.This study, albeit retrospective and calling for controlled clinical trials, suggests that different ACTs can be applied in different populations of patients.

Patients with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are unable to exercise at high intensities for sufficiently long periods of time to obtain true physiological training effects. It therefore appears sensible to increase training duration at sub-maximal exercise intensities to optimize the benefit of exercise training. We compared the effects on exercise tolerance of two endurance cycloergometer submaximal exercise protocols with different cumulative training loads (one (G1) versus two (G2) daily 40 min training sessions) both implemented over 20 consecutive days in 149 patients with COPD (forced expiratory volume at first second (FEV1): 39% predicted) admitted to an inpatient pulmonary rehabilitation program. Patients in G2 exhibited greater improvement (p = 0.011) in submaximal endurance time (from 258 (197) to 741 (662) sec) compared to G1 (from 303 (237) to 530 (555) sec). Clinically meaningful improvements in health-related quality of life, 6MWT, and chronic dyspnea were not different between groups. Doubling the volume of endurance training is feasible and can lead to an additional benefit on exercise tolerance. Future studies may investigate the applicability and benefits of this training strategy in the outpatient or community-based pulmonary rehabilitation settings to amplify the benefits of exercise interventions.

Introduction/Objectives The aim of our study was to assess the safety, efficacy and feasibility of an Expiratory Flow Accelerator (EFA) device, Free Aspire, in reducing the need for daily suctions in tracheostomised (TCS) patients. Methods Twenty‐five patients (13 males, 12 females, aged 69.88 ± 9.06 years) were investigated. The number of superficial/deep suctions, shallows, arterial blood gas (ABG) analysis, perception of mucus encumbrance (Visual Numeric Scale, VNS) and adverse event were recorded for five days. On the first two days (T1‐T2), suctioning was performed as usual, on the following three days (T3, T4, T5), patients were treated also with Free Aspire (20 min, 3 times a day). Results/Conclusion The use of the non‐invasive device was associated with a decrease of total number of aspirations from T2 to T5 (8.48 ± 2.62 vs 4.48 ± 3.08, P = 0.0003). Total number of daily aspirations decreased over the five days (8.68 ± 3.64 vs 4.48 ± 3.08, P = 0.0009). Deep aspirations decreased from T1 to T5 (6.16 ± 3.53 vs 1.80 ± 1.50, P = 0.0001). ABG data confirmed that no significant side effects occurred. VNS score decreased from 7.03 ± 1.42 at T1 to 4.05 ± 1.80 at T5 (P < 0.0001). These data suggest that EFA may be useful for managing secretions in TCS patients, as it can reduce the number of daily suctions, particularly the deep ones, and may improve the perception of mucus encumbrance, without side effects. More studies are needed to confirm these data and to understand in which categories of TCS patients this device can be introduced.

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