Effect of Active Cycle of Breathing Technique in Patients with Pulmonary Conditions- Literature Review

Abstract

Background: Active cycle of breathing technique is an airway clearance method that uses a cycle of techniques to loosen airway secretions, which includes breathing control, thoracic expansion exercises and forced expiration tech-nique. The ACBT focus on normalizing the respiratory pattern, promoting airway clearance and reducing work of breathing.. Along with this, it also helps in improving the Quality of life, reducing breathlessness and in turn improves the functional capacity of the individual. Therefore the main aim of this study was to find out the effect of ACBT in pa-tients suffering from pulmonary conditions. Materials and Methods: Literature review were looked for at PEDRO, where ACBT was used as an intervention technique for the experimental group. Out of the total articles searched in PEDRO which showed ACBT as an intervention along with other techniques not under the control group, the statisti-cal analysis was done which showed ACBT to be an effective intervention in various pulmonary conditions like Asth-ma, COPD, Bronchiectasis — thereby allowing us to comment on whether ACBT is effective or not as a treatment pro-tocol. Results: Out of 9 articles searched in PeDro where ACBT was used as a treatment protocol in one group; it showed that eight articles proved the ACBT treatment to be effective and 1 article showed that ACBT is not that effec-tive as a treatment protocol. Conclusion: Thus this systematic review concludes that ACBT is an effective treatment protocol as eight reviewed articles out of 9 prove its effectiveness along with mentioning that it also helps in improv-ing Quality of life and functional capacity by reducing the level of breathlessness.