• Rev Port Pneumol · Mar 2014

    Observational Study

    Implementation of a guideline for physical therapy in the postoperative period of upper abdominal surgery reduces the incidence of atelectasis and length of hospital stay.

    • S Souza Possa, C Braga Amador, A Meira Costa, E Takahama Sakamoto, C Seiko Kondo, A L Maida Vasconcellos, C M Moran de Brito, and W Pereira Yamaguti.
    • Rehabilitation Service, Hospital Sírio-Libanês, São Paulo, SP, Brazil; School of Medicine, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
    • Rev Port Pneumol. 2014 Mar 1;20(2):69-77.

    ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of implementing a physical therapy guideline for patients undergoing upper abdominal surgery (UAS) in reducing the incidence of atelectasis and length of hospital stay in the postoperative period.Materials And MethodsA "before and after" study design with historical control was used. The "before" period included consecutive patients who underwent UAS before guideline implementation (intervention). The "after" period included consecutive patients after guideline implementation. Patients in the pre-intervention period were submitted to a program of physical therapy in which the treatment planning was based on the individual experience of each professional. On the other hand, patients who were included in the post-intervention period underwent a standardized program of physical therapy with a focus on the use of additional strategies (EPAP, incentive spirometry and early mobilization).ResultsThere was a significant increase in the use of incentive spirometry and positive expiratory airway pressure after guideline implementation. Moreover, it was observed that early ambulation occurred in all patients in the post-intervention period. No patient who adhered totally to the guideline in the post-intervention period developed atelectasis. Individuals in the post-intervention period presented a shorter length of hospital stay (9.2±4.1 days) compared to patients in the pre-intervention period (12.1±8.3 days) (p<0.05).ConclusionThe implementation of a physical therapy guideline for patients undergoing UAS resulted in reduced incidence of atelectasis and reduction in length of hospital stay in the postoperative period.Copyright © 2013 Sociedade Portuguesa de Pneumologia. Published by Elsevier España. All rights reserved.

      Pubmed     Free full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…