Soft Drink Straw as an Alternative Device of Creating Positive Expiratory Pressure (PEP) in Thoracic Surgery Patients

Is there any possibility that patients who undergone thoracic surgery could use a simple soft drink straw as an alternative PEP device? The present study was performed to test the suitability and effect of a soft drink straw as an alternative Positive Expiratory Pressure device in patients undergone thoracic surgery and includes two sub-exploratory areas.

Before and after the measurements, the volunteers' saturation, heart rate, respiratory rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, dyspnea, thoracotomy pain and Cough Peak Expiratory Flow was measured.

The first part of the research, that refers to the most appropriate command for exhalation from a straw of a certain inner diameter (5mm), was carried out by using a device consisted of drinking straw, disposable mouthpiece and manometer, which valued the developed pressures during the exhalation attempts. Patients did not have visual contact with the manometer. The effectiveness of two commands (Command A: "blow continuously so that you feel little resistance during exhalation" and Command B: "blow continuously so that you feel moderate resistance during exhalation") was estimated by comparing the average of the developing pressures for every command, that occur during exhalation, with the therapeutic range of pressure. This part of the study was a cross-sectional transition and every volunteer performed 3 attempts, for each command.

The second part of the research was conducted for the evaluation of the benefits of the use of a drinking straw as an alternative device. A number of n = 8 volunteers (intervention group), who were selected from the overall sample using the closed envelope method. Taking into account the results of the first part of the research, the respondents were asked to exhale as indicated by the command that was selected before, performing 3 sets of 10 repetitions, that included short breaks between sets. The remaining volunteers (n = 5) consisted the control group.

Finally, all patients were re-examined in order to measure the Cough Peak Expiratory Flow , dyspnea, pain, saturation, heart and respiratory rate, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure, after the intervention.