Implications for respiratory muscle training in patients with stroke-associated pneumonia: a meta-analysis

Abstract

Purpose To evaluate the effect of respiratory muscle training on improving lung function in patients with stroke-associated pneumonia. Materials and methods A systematic retrieval was conducted using the databases of the Cochrane Library, PubMed, the Web of Science, Embase, ProQuest, and others. Studies involving patients who received respiratory muscle training with/without a breathing trainer and those who adopted routine post-stroke rehabilitation training were included in the systematic review. The statistical analysis was performed using RevMan 5.3 software. Results Fourteen studies were included involving 850 patients with stroke. According to the results of the meta-analysis, compared with the control group, there were statistically significant differences in forced vital capacity (FVC) measurements (mean difference (MD) = 0.93, p < 0.0001) and improvement values for FEV1/FVC (MD = 0.65, p < 0.00001) in the experimental group. The FEV1 value was higher in the experimental group than in the control group (MD = 5.89, p < 0.0001). Furthermore, respiratory muscle training was superior to routine rehabilitation training for improving the PImax of patients with stroke (MD = 9.20, p < 0.0001). The patients had better respiratory tolerance after respiratory muscle training intervention (MD = 73.40, p < 0.0001). Conclusions The implementation of respiratory muscle training can improve FVC and FEV lung function indicators, inspiratory muscle strength and the 6-min walk test results in patients with stroke.