Abstract
Background: Early diagnosis and enhancement of mucociliary clearance by chest physiotherapy is important to prevent the development of bronchiectasis in primary ciliary dyskinesia (PSD). Percussion and postural drainage are the most commonly used methods. Vest® is a new chest physiotheraphy method which creates oscillation on the chest wall and move the secretions from small airways to the large airways. There is no study evaluating the efficacy of Vest® in PSD. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Vest® in PSD patients.
Material-methods: Both conventional chest physiotheraphy and Vest® were applied randomly to 7 PSD patients older than 6 years of age. Oxygen saturation was monitored and pulmonary function tests (PFT) were performed on the first and 5th day of both therapies. Patients were questioned about the efficiency and comfort level of the both methods.
Results: Forty-two percent of patients were male. Mean age was 9.9±3.4 years and the patients were followed up for 7.2±2.3 years. Dextrocardia was present in all of the patients and situs inversus totalis was observed in 71%. There were no desaturation during sessions. Although day 5 PFT were better in both groups, this did not reach statistical significance. There was no difference between the two groups in terms of PFT. Both physiotherapy methods were found effective and comfortable and there was no significant difference between the two groups.
Conclusion: Vest® was comfortable and tolerated well by the patients. There was no difference in PFT's between the conventional chest physiotheraphy and Vest® group. We presented the preliminary results of ongoing the study.
- © 2011 ERS