Respiratory physiotherapy is a specialty of physical therapy that aims to prevent and treat virtually all diseases affecting the respiratory system, such as asthma, bronchitis, respiratory failure and tuberculosis, for example. The physical therapist should always perform it at home, at the clinic, in the hospital or at work.
Breathing exercises are also essential to improve breathing and mobilize ventilatory muscles. In addition, respiratory physiotherapy can also be performed in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), even when the patient is intubated, i.e. breathing with devices.
- Examples of respiratory physiotherapy exercises to increase lung capacity in case of breathing difficulties.
- Such as:.
Exercises should be done slowly, without haste and can be repeated 5 to 10 times. However, the physical therapist will be able to personally indicate which exercises are best suited to each situation.
This type of physiotherapy is used to improve oxygen supply to the entire body. The goal will always be to release the airways from secretions and increase the ventilatory capacity of the lung, which may be useful after heart, thoracic or abdominal surgery to prevent, for example, pneumonia and atelectacy.
Specific examples of cardiopulmonary physiotherapy performance include:
Respiratory physiotherapy can be performed in childhood in pediatrics and neonatology whenever necessary, as children are also susceptible to the onset of diseases such as pneumonia and bronchiolitis and respiratory physiotherapy may be indicated to treat these and other diseases in order to improve gas exchanges and thus facilitate their breathing.
Outpatient respiratory physiotherapy is done in the clinic to treat and relieve chronic diseases such as asthma and heart disease. According to the doctor’s advice, it should be done once or twice a week indefinitely, until the individual’s breathing capacity is normalized.
Hospital respiratory physiotherapy is performed in hospital rooms when the patient is hospitalized and sometimes bedridden. In this case, motor and respiratory physiotherapy is indicated during hospitalization and even if you do not have any respiratory disease, you must have at least 1 daily session of respiratory physiotherapy to prevent the onset of respiratory diseases and improve lung function.
Home respiratory physiotherapy is indicated for people who have been discharged from the hospital but are still recovering from breathing problems or heart events, such as a heart attack. This can be done once or twice a week, under the direction of the physical therapist working with home care, but the individual should be encouraged to practice daily respiratory physiotherapy exercises.
To do this, the physical therapist can use devices that mobilize secretion, fluidize and facilitate its elimination, such as floats and nebulizers, and indicate the conduct of exercises that stimulate forced breathing.
Discover some nebulization options
The main benefits of respiratory physiotherapy include:
Strategies used to achieve these benefits include postural drainage maneuvers, manual chest pressure, percussion, vibration, vibrocompression, cough facilitation and upper airway suction.
Watch the video below and learn how to do breathing exercises at home to strengthen your lung: