What is respiratory physiotherapy and why is it so important?
system ask the doctor | date:13:33 12/02/2023
Patients with lung diseases who receive drug treatment are also treated with complementary treatment methods designed to alleviate the symptoms of the diseases, one of which is respiratory physiotherapy. This is a branch of rehabilitation that makes it significantly easier to carry out daily activities and improve the quality of life by reducing respiratory difficulty with effort. The treatment also helps to ventilate the respiratory system and affects other body systems such as the blood and nerves by improving the flow of oxygen in them.
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This method makes it possible to improve the shortness of breath that characterizes those diseases, to clear phlegm from the airways and finally – a more effective rehabilitation. These can be achieved by increasing the volume of breathing, strengthening the muscles of the system and clearing the secretions, so these are the efforts that respiratory physiotherapy includes.
What does respiratory physiotherapy treat?
The main goal of respiratory physiotherapy is to treat the various symptoms of common lung diseases such as: COPD, cystic fibrosis, asthma, pneumonia and more. In addition, the method has a significant effect on the rehabilitation of lung transplant recipients after surgery.
These lung diseases are chronic diseases caused by prolonged exposure to various pollutants such as dust, smoking products and the like. Some are hereditary diseases that are transmitted in the genetic load in the case where both parents are carriers. These lung diseases and difficulty in respiratory function harm the patients’ quality of life by symptoms such as cough and phlegm accumulation, shortness of breath on exertion, and the like.
There are other situations in which respiratory physiotherapy is used for the treatment and rehabilitation of patients, including neurological diseases that cause atrophy of the respiratory muscles, or patients who needed artificial respiration and now have to deal with the decrease in the function of the autonomic respiratory system.
How is respiratory physiotherapy performed?
The treatment method includes several parts where the patient spends most of the time performing active exercises while being under the supervision of the physiotherapists. With the help of various exercises of moving the body and controlling breathing consciously, the muscles of the lungs are strengthened and their ventilation is carried out. Such exercises, for example, would be aerobic exercises, strength and flexibility exercises, and breathing exercises to clear secretions.
The supervision of the professional physiotherapists during the treatment is necessary to maintain a healthy effort that does not endanger the patient, and allows for personal adjustment of the practice in favor of the success of the treatment. This success is defined, among other things, with the help of the built physical fitness, the improved mobility of the patient and the breathing itself. In addition to these, the therapists can help patients adopt coping techniques for breathing difficulties and assist in the elimination of secretions.
What is the importance of respiratory physiotherapy for patients and lung transplant recipients?
To breathe effectively, proper and strong activity of the muscles of the respiratory system is required. Just like any other muscle in the body, the muscles of the respiratory system also need training to be built and strengthened. Therefore, if it is necessary to strengthen the respiratory system, it is better to train the muscles that make it up efficiently and professionally.
It is very important to perform respiratory physiotherapy treatments for patients with lung diseases and patients after lung transplant surgery. These groups are characterized by the difficulty of performing physical efforts due to the breathing difficulties they suffer from, and this is the root of the problem.
The lack of physical activity further degenerates the respiratory system in all its parts: the capacity of the lungs is reduced, the diameter of the airways is small, the amount of secretions increases and the gas exchange in the lungs is ineffective. All of these are the results of a lack of physical activity, which lead to aggravation of respiratory difficulty and the body’s ability to recover.
In addition, a lack of mobility, as allowed by respiratory physiotherapy, may cause the development of blood clots and embolisms that may be dangerous to the respiratory system and the body in general to the point of death. This is a condition that is mostly common in post-surgery patients who find it difficult to perform any movement, and hence respiratory physiotherapy plays an important role in their rehabilitation.