Chest Physical Therapy

Overview :

Chest physical therapy can be performed in a variety of settings including critical care units, hospitals, nursing homes, outpatient clinics, and at the patient's home. Depending on the circumstances, chest physical therapy may be performed by anyone from a respiratory care therapist to a trained member of the patient's family. Different patient conditions warrant different levels of training.

Chest physical therapy consists of a variety of procedures that are applied depending on the patient's health and condition. Hospitalized patients are reevaluated frequently to establish which procedures are most effective and best tolerated. Patients receiving long term chest physical therapy are reevaluated about every three months.

Turning

Turning from side to side permits lung expansion. Patients may turn themselves or be turned by a caregiver. The head of the bed is also elevated to promote drainage if the patient can tolerate this position. Critically ill patients and those dependent on mechanical respiration are turned once every one to two hours around the clock.

Coughing

Coughing helps break up secretions in the lungs so that the mucus can be suctioned out or expectorated. Patients sit upright and inhale deeply through the nose. They then exhale in short puffs or coughs. Coughing is repeated several times a day.

Deep breathing

Deep breathing helps expand the lungs and forces better distribution of the air into all sections of the lung. The patient either sits in a chair or sits upright in bed and inhales, pushing the abdomen out to force maximum amounts of air into the lung. The abdomen is then contracted, and the patient exhales. Deep breathing exercises are done several times each day for short periods.

Postural drainage

Postural drainage uses the force of gravity to assist in effectively draining secretions from the lungs and into the central airway where they can either be coughed up or suctioned out. The patient is placed in a head or chest down position and is kept in this position for up to 15 minutes. Critical care patients and those depending on mechanical ventilation receive postural drainage therapy four to six times daily. Percussion and vibration may be performed in conjunction with postural drainage.

Percussion

Percussion is rhythmically striking the chest wall with cupped hands. It is also called cupping, clapping, or tapotement. The purpose of percussion is to break up thick secretions in the lungs so that they can be more easily removed. Percussion is performed on each lung segment for one to two minutes at a time.

Vibration

As with percussion, the purpose of vibration is to help break up lung secretions. Vibration can be either mechanical or manual. It is performed as the patient breathes deeply. When done manually, the person performing the vibration places his or her hands against the patient's chest and creates vibrations by quickly contracting and relaxing arm and shoulder muscles while the patient exhales. The procedure is repeated several times each day for about five exhalations.