Chest
Volume 86, Issue 3, September 1984, Pages 505-506
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Communications to the Editor
Thoracic Compression for Asthma

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Section snippets

Principles

  • 1.

    Asthmatic patients have difficulty moving air, especially during exhalation.

  • 2.

    If an open flexible vessel containing air is compressed, the air is expelled.

Practice

Applying these principles to the asthmatic subject, I have found that by manually compressing the patients chest during exhalation, the forced expiratory volume can be increased by about 30 percent.

The exactness of the manner in which compression is applied does not appear to be very important, except, of course, that compression must be confined to the period during which the patient is exhaling. With a large subject I get behind and encircle the chest with my upper limbs, giving a sort of

Advantages

This method has the following advantages:

  • 1.

    It is simple. I teach it to the parents of some asthmatic children.

  • 2.

    It is rapid. Faster than any drug, it acts with the first breath.

  • 3.

    It is effective. Forced expiratory volume increases by about 30 percent.

  • 4.

    It provides rest for the expiratory muscles. Respiratory demand is thus reduced and exhaustion averted.

  • 5.

    It provides reassurance. Children who have experienced it remain calm, whereas giving an injection may cause distress, struggling and hence

Disadvantages

The only disadvantage appears to be risk of physical trauma.

I should be very grateful for feed-back from your readers in terms of comments, criticisms and reports of the use of this method. I am sorry if I have failed, inadvertently, to acknowledge any previous report of the method.

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