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Effects of Respiratory Physiotherapy on Pleural Effusion

Effectiveness of a Program of Respiratory Physiotherapy on Pleural Effusion: a Randomized Controlled Trial

Status
Completed
Phases
NA
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT01756742
Enrollment
112
Registered
2012-12-27
Start date
2009-02-28
Completion date
2012-03-31
Last updated
2012-12-27

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Pleural Effusion

Keywords

Pleural Effusion, Respiratory physiotherapy, Length of stay

Brief summary

Pleural effusion and the complexity of diagnosis and treatment make planning and delivering care challenging. Respiratory physiotherapy is recommended, and should be applied during the first weeks of treatment.The aim of the present study is to demonstrate the effectiveness of a respiratory physiotherapy protocol in patients with Pleural Effusion who attended a University Hospital.

Detailed description

Approximately 1.5 million patients are diagnosed with pleural effusion each year in the United States . Pleural effusion (PE) is an accumulation of fluid in the pleural space that is classified as transudate or exudate according to its composition and underlying pathophysiology. The goal in the management of pleural effusion is to provide symptomatic relief by removing fluid from the pleural space and to allow the treatment of the underlying disease. While some authors (REF) propose respiratory physiotherapy, in the majority of the cases only the medical treatment combined with the pleural fluid removal by thoracentesis are the most common practice. The objective of this study is verify the effectiveness of respiratory physiotherapy in pleural effusion

Interventions

The respiratory physiotherapy intervention included: * Mobilisation techniques: limb exercises (passive, active assisted, or active resisted) * Chest physiotherapy: it included a Controlled breathing program, pursed lips breathing (PLB), active expiration and incentive spirometry.

OTHERConservative treatment

Conservative medical treatment intervention for pleural effusion.

Sponsors

Universidad de Granada
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE (Outcomes Assessor)

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 65 Years
Healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

* Diagnosis of pleural effusion based on the presence of a consistent radiological finding on simple posteroanterior and lateral chest X-rays, and decubitus lateral in cases of small PE.

Exclusion criteria

* Non diagnosis of pleural effusion

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Assessment of the severity of respiratory diseasebaseline, 12 monthsA spirometry is used to assess severity of individual patients respiratory disease and their response to therapy and is regarded as the gold standard measure of respiratory function. The following variables were recorded; forced vital capacity, forced expiratory volume achieved in 1 second, and the forced expiratory flow over the middle one half of the forced vital capacity.

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Length of the hospital staybaseline, 12 monthsLength of stay was defined as the number of days between admission and discharge.
Severity in the pleural effusion repercussionbaseline, 12 months.The chest radiograph has been the initial diagnostic tool for the detection and evaluation of pleural effusion. The severity was codified from 0(normal) to 10 (very severe) by a radiologist with more than 8 years of experience.

Countries

Spain

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026