The role of physical rehabilitation in the treatment of exudative pleurisy

Abstract

Exudates are due to a variety of diseases, the major and most common ones being tuberculosis, nonspecific inflammation and malignancy. They are usually treated conservatively, sometimes combined with surgery and physical treatment. Physical therapy includes positional exercises, breathing exercises and biostimulation. The study was aimed to find out the following: 1) Is lung function improved by physical therapy; 2) Can adhesions be diminished and mobility of the affected hemidiaphragm improved by physical treatment; 3) Is there a direct positive correlation between physical treatment and obtained improvement, or the same can be achieved in patients receiving medicamentous treatment only; 4) What are the effects of some factors we cannot influence (sex, age, effusion level, position of adhesions) on lung function and diaphragm mobility improvement, that is on the efficiency of physical treatment; 5) How do the factors we can influence (the time interval before initiating the treatment and its duration) affect improvement of the same lung function parameters, that is treatment efficacy? Physical treatment of patients with exudative pleurisy was accomplished at the Department of Rehabilitation in our Institute and it consisted of directed breathing exercises and laser biostimulation. Its effects were examined in a group of 175 patients, who received both conservative and physical treatment, and results were compared with the control group patients, treated only conservatively (with antibiotics, antituberculotics, corticosteroids). Comparative analysis confirmed a significant improvement of lung function parameters (VC, FEV1, PEF) as well as of hemidiaphragm mobility on the affected side of the thorax in favour of the examined group. The severity of the lung function and diaphragm mobility impairments have been found to be in correlation with the localization of adhesions, whereas the degree of improvement correlated with the time interval before the treatment initiation, as well as with its duration. The applied physical therapy resulted in: 1) significant improvement of all examined lung function parameters in the examined group, which was not registered in the control group; 2) significant improvement of the diaphragm mobility in general; 3) factors such as sex, age and effusion level have no effects on the physical treatment results; 4) treatment results are affected by the time interval passed before the treatment initiation and its duration, as well as the localization of adhesions; anterior adhesions affected lung function and diaphragm mobility least, posterior ones more, while the influence of lateral adhesions was most significant. It is finally concluded that physical treatment should necessarily be included in the treatment of exudative pleurisy.