This study was designed to assess the efficacy of the flutter VRP1 device as an adjunct to and in comparison with standard chest physiotherapy for adult patients after thoracotomy. Twenty patients gave informed consent and completed the trial. They each received in random order on four immediately post-operative days: one day of physiotherapy only, one of flutter only, one of flutter and physiotherapy, and one of sham flutter and physiotherapy. Vital capacity and 24-hour sputum volume were measured daily. Visual analogue scores of chest comfort, breathing difficulty, and ease of expectoration were recorded. Means were compared by analysis of variance. No statistically significant differences were found between the effects of the four treatments on any of the indices measured. We conclude that in post-thoracotomy patients there would be no gain in adding the flutter VRP1 to physiotherapy, nor in substituting it for physiotherapy. A larger study with more power to detect differences would be needed to ascertain whether flutter was disadvantageous.

Full text (sometimes free) may be available at these link(s):      help

• DOI
• PDF locator
• publisher