PURPOSE: A systematic review was conducted to investigate the effect of respiratory physiotherapy on mortality, quality of life, functional recovery, intensive care length of stay, duration of ventilation, oxygenation, secretion clearance, and pulmonary mechanics for invasively ventilated adults with pneumonia. METHOD: Five databases were searched for randomized trials published between January 1995 and November 2018. Study quality was assessed using a standardized Joanna Briggs Institute critical appraisal tool, and Review Manager software was used to pool the studies. The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach was used to evaluate the level of certainty of the evidence. RESULTS: A total of 14 studies of moderate quality included 251 subjects with pneumonia. Eight studies were pooled for meta-analysis. Interventions that increased inspiratory volume appeared to benefit secretion clearance by nearly 2 grams (mean difference (MD) 1.97; 95% CI 0.80 to 3.14 very low GRADE evidence) and increase static lung compliance immediately after treatment by more than 5 millilitres/centimetre H2O (MD 5.40 mL/cm H2O; 95% CI 2.37 to 8.43; very low GRADE evidence) or by more than 6 millilitres/centimetre H2O after a 20- to 30-minute delay (MD 6.86 ml/cm H2O; 95% CI 2.86 to 10.86; very low GRADE evidence). No adverse events were found. CONCLUSIONS: Respiratory physiotherapy that increases tidal volume may benefit secretion clearance and lung compliance in invasively ventilated adults with pneumonia, but its impact on other outcomes, including mortality, length of stay, and other patient-centred outcomes, is unclear, and further research is required.

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