gms | German Medical Science

15th Congress of the European Forum for Research in Rehabilitation (EFRR)

15.04. - 17.04.2019, Berlin

How has technology affected the practice in pediatric pulmonary rehabilitation?

Meeting Abstract

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15th Congress of the European Forum for Research in Rehabilitation (EFRR). Berlin, 15.-17.04.2019. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2019. Doc083

doi: 10.3205/19efrr083, urn:nbn:de:0183-19efrr0839

Published: April 16, 2019

© 2019 Kenis Coskun.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. See license information at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.


Outline

Text

Background: Recently, with the advance of new devices such as high-frequency chest wall oscillator and high-frequency percussive ventilation, technology is used to a greater extent in pediatric pulmonary rehabilitation [1], [2]. But traditional methods such as PEP bottle and postural drainage are still widely used. To all methods, patient compliance and adhesion to therapy are not sufficient.

Aim: The aim of this session is to look at the existing literature to see why we have not given up ‘old school’ techniques and to elaborate future study designs to increase the scope of literature.

Method: The existing literature focusing on the devices such as high-frequency chest wall oscillator and high-frequency percussive ventilation and their comparisons to the traditional methods will be discussed.

Results/findings: The newer, more technological techniques are as effective as the traditional ones, but not more effective than they are. Considering the lack of evidence of all these techniques in the literature, the main focus of therapy remains on the method which can be used instead of which one is more effective.

Discussion and conclusions: The introduction of novel devices to the pulmonary rehabilitation setting has increased the options for practitioners and patients alike. However, these new devices do not seem to be superior to more traditional methods. Considering their cost-effectiveness and ease to obtain them, traditional techniques are hard to give up and will most likely continue to be a part of daily practice.


References

1.
Lauwers E, Ides K, Van Hoorenbeeck K, Verhulst S. The effect of intrapulmonary percussive ventilation in pediatric patients: A systematic review. Pediatr Pulmonol. 2018 Nov;53(11):1463-74. DOI: 10.1002/ppul.24135 External link
2.
Morrison L, Innes S. Oscillating devices for airway clearance in people with cystic fibrosis. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2017 May 4;5:CD006842. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD006842.pub4 External link