Effectiveness of airway clearance techniques in children hospitalized with acute bronchiolitis

Objective : To evaluate the effectiveness of two airway clearance techniques (ACT’s) in children < 24 months hospitalized with mild to moderate bronchiolitis. Design : One hundred and three children were randomly allocated to receive one 20-min session daily, either assisted autogenic drainage (AAD), intrapulmonary percussive ventilation (IPV) or bouncing (B) (control group), ninety-three finished the study. Outcome measures : Mean time to recovery in days was our primary outcome measure. The impact of the treatment and the daily improvement was also assessed by a validated clinical and respiratory severity score (WANG score), heart rate (HR) and oxygen saturation (Sa02). Results : Mean time to recovery was 4.5±1.9 days for the control group, 3.6±1.4 days, P<0.05 for the AAD group and 3.5±1.3 days, P=0.03 for the IPV group. Wang scores improved significantly for both physiotherapy techniques compared to the control group. Conclusion : Both ACT’s reduced significantly the length of hospital stay compared to no physiotherapy.

Publication year:2017

Keywords:airway clearance techniques, autogenic drainage, bronchiolitis, intrapulmonary percussive ventilation, respiratory physiotherapy

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