Effect of active pulmonary rehabilitation on pulmonary function in patients with brain lesion

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The patients with brain lesion have a high risk of pulmonary complication due to restrictive pulmonary impairment. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effectiveness of active pulmonary rehabilitation on pulmonary functional improvement in these patients. METHODS: Twnety-two patients of hemiplegia or quadriplegia with brain lesion were recruited who had restrictive pulmonary impairment. The patients were randomly assigned to an experimental group that receive active pulmonary rehabilitation training and a control group without it. The active pulmonary rehabilitation training is composed of air-stacking exercise by ambu-bagging and functional electrical stimulation (FES) on phrenic nerve and abdominal muscle. We examined respiration function test of all patients composed of peak cough flow (PCF), pulmonary function test (PFT), diaphragmatic motion evaluation and oxygen saturation (SaO2) at the beginning and 4 weeks after treatment. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in pulmonary function between experimental group and control group at the beginning. After 4 weeks treatment, FVC and FEV1 of PFT, PCF, diaphragmatic motion, SaO2 have significantly improved (p < 0.05) in experimental group, but no significant changes were detected in control group. CONCLUSIONS: It is suggested that active pulmonary rehabilitation with air-stacking exercise and FES would be useful to improve pulmonary function in patients with brain lesion.

The Effects of Air Stacking Exercise on Pulmonary Function in Elderly Adults

“…This study was undertaken to document the effects of Previous studies have shown that air stacking exercise significantly improves pulmonary function and peak cough flow in patients with restrictive pulmonary disease caused by a brain lesion (Na et al, 2014). In the present study, after 4 weeks of active pulmonary rehabilitation consisting of air stacking and a manually assisted cough exercise added to a conventional pulmonary rehabilitation program, FVC increased from 1.9 to 2.7 liters, FEV1 from 1.5 to 1.8 liters, and PCF increased to 349.1 liter/min in the experimental group, and all these increases were significant.…”

“…During the 4 weeks of the experiment, conventional pulmonary rehabilitation exercises, such as, cough exercise, deep breathing, and abdominal muscle strengthening exercises were performed (Na et al, 2014).…”

“…(3) Oxygen saturation SaO2Oxygen saturation was measured by pulsed oximetry (3300MX, Matrx, USA) immediately after awakening, as previously described (Na et al, 2014). Oxygen saturation items and rated using a 10-point scale.…”

“…During this exercise, a subject inhales a maximal amount of air and then a therapist passively infuses additional air into the subject's lungs. In a previous study, 4 weeks of active air stacking exercise with manually assisted coughing and functional electrical stimulation in addition to conventional pulmonary rehabilitation in patients with restrictive pulmonary disease caused by a brain lesion were found to improve pulmonary function (Na et al, 2014).…”

“…Pulmonary complications are often encountered when treating elderly adults, and until recently the importance of pulmonary rehabilitation for elderly adults was overlooked (Na et al, 2014).…”