Effects of Chest Physiotherapy on Respiratory Capacity in Patients With Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of chest physiotherapy on respiratory function during rest sitting and stationary bicycle in participants hospitalized for a period with respiratory involvement after SARS-CoV-2 infection.

METHODS

This study was a randomized, single-blinded, controlled study. Forty-four participants after SARS-CoV-2 met the inclusion criteria and were randomly assigned to the 2 groups. The study intervention included a program of 10 sessions of supervised chest physiotherapy (intervention) and without any intervention (control) groups. They were assessed on 2 sessions before and after the intervention according to the respiratory function, including time of inspiration (TI), time of expiration (TE), peak inspiratory flow (PIF), peak expiratory flow (PEF), forced vital capacity (FVC), and forced expiratory volume 1/forced vital capacity (FEV1/FVC). This assessment was done on 2 situations: during rest sitting position on the table and during stationary bicycle for 20 minutes.

RESULTS

Analysis of variance revealed that the effect of time was significant for the PEF and FVC. Moreover, the interaction effect of "time and group" was significant for the TE, PEF, FEV1, and FEV1/FVC. A group difference was revealed for the TE, FEV1, and FEV1/FVC after the intervention. The paired t-test indicated that the PEF, FEV1, and FEV1/FVC increased in the intervention group when the spirometry was done in the sitting position (P ≤ .05). Independent t-test also showed that the FEV1 (P = .008) and FEV1/FVC (P = .004) significantly increased in the intervention group compared to the control group during sitting spirometry (P ≤ .05). Moreover, FEV1/FVC (P = .002) was decreased in the intervention group when the spirometry was done during stationary bicycle.

CONCLUSION

In this study, patients after SARS-CoV-2 had improved respiratory functions and functional activities after 10 sessions of therapy.