ABSTRACT

Back ground and objectives: Post-thoracic surgery sessions are common among the patients and develops pulmonary complications such as atletasis, retention of sputum, infections, pleural effusion, and most likely respiratory failure. After Post-thoracic surgery the patients may present with marked reduction in the chest expansion, and it may leads to reduction in the pulmonary function. This study aims to improve the chest expansion and pulmonary function by an intervention using selected physical exercise programme for thorax.

Methods: 30 post-thoracic surgery patients selected for this study. The subjects in both groups received informative leaflet reinforcing the educational program.The experimental group had performed selected physical exercise program for thorax for 6 days after thoracic surgery with duration of 30 minutes ,twice a day along with breathing exercises. The control group had performed breathing exercise for 30 minutes and session for 6 days after thoracic surgery. The pre and post test assessment, which included chest expansion measurement and pulmonary function test values were noted.

Results:Both groups have shown improvement after treatment .But when the score of the both groups compared to find out the effectiveness of experimental groups ,there was significant change in the group of additional of post Isometric relaxation technique over the control group on improving chest expansion and pulmonary functions.

Conclusion:The study findings indicated that additional Post Isometric Relaxation technique to the patients helped to improve the chest expansion & pulmonary function.However before implementing on to clinical practice, this results needs to be reviewed with few more detailed clinical trial.

Key Words: Post Isometric Relaxation, Chest Expansion Measurement, Forced Vital Capacity, Forced Expiratory Volume in 1 second.