Respiratory physiotherapy for nurslings with bronchiolitis: should we do it or not?

Abstract

The aim of the present work was to compare the effectiveness of the vibrocompression and tapotage technique associatedwith postural draining and the tracheal aspiration technique in nurslings hospitalized due to bronchiolitis. Children below 2 years of ageadmitted at the hospital and in the emergency unit were the research subjects, all with a diagnosis of viral bronquiolitis in spontaneousbreathing in a total of 19 nurslings with clinical and radiological diagnosis of bronquiolitis. For this, the following interventions werecarried through: three groups were randomized: vibrocompression + postural draining (VC+DP); tapotage + postural draining (TAP+DP);and tracheal aspiration (ASP). Saturation of oxygen pulse (SpO2), cardiac frequency (FC), respiratory frequency (f), Silverman – AndersonScore (BSA), which evaluates the respiratory discomfort, were evaluated at three moments: pre-treatment (pre), post-immediate (post i)and 15 minutes after finishing the treatment (post 15); the amount of inhaled secretion was evaluated only in after i. Results show thata significant reduction in BSA and a greater amount of secretion was removed in VC+ DP and TAP + DP groups in post 15 (p < 0.05).There was reduction in FC in post 15 in the three groups. We conclude that VC and TAP, associated to postural draining, were efficientin the removal of secretion and the reduction of respiratory discomfort in nurslings with bronchiolitis.