Effects of preoperative respiratory muscle exercise on the prevention of postoperative pulmonary complications in patients with abdominal operation: a Meta-analysis

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the effect of preoperative respiratory muscle exercise on the prevention of postoperative pulmonary complications in patients with abdominal operation. Methods The published randomized control trails (RCT) on preoperative respiratory muscle exercise for the prevention of pulmonary complications after abdominal operation were collected in the databases of PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Chinese BioMedical Literature Database (CBM) by computer from January 1, 1975 to March 1, 2016. Two researchers extracted the data and assessed the quality of studies according to the revised edition of Jadad scale independently. Then meta-analyses were performed on included studies. Results A total of 6 RCTs involving 385 patients were included. The results of meta-analyses showed that the preoperative respiratory muscle exercise could effectively decrease the incidence of pulmonary infection [OR=0.38, 95%CI (0.16, 0.91), P=0.03], pulmonary atelectasis [OR=0.17, 95%CI (0.05, 0.56), P=0.004]. Conclusions The preoperative respiratory muscle exercise can effectively decrease the incidence of pulmonary infection and pulmonary atelectasis. Key words: Breathing exercises; Surgical procedures, operative; Infection; Pulmonary atelectasis; Meta analysis