Preoperative respiratory physical therapy program as a prehabilitation to improve inspiratory muscle function and quality of life in patients undergoing upper abdominal surgeries: a prospective randomized controlled trial

Respiratory complications are the most common complications after surgery. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of preoperative respiratory physical therapy program in improving inspiratory muscle function and quality of life (QoL) in patients undergoing upper abdominal surgeries. Forty patients undergoing upper abdominal surgeries were selected from Kasr El-Aini Hospital; their ages ranged from 25 to 45 years. Patients were randomly assigned to the control or the physical therapy group. Only the physical therapy group received the preoperative chest physical therapy program. All treatment interventions were applied at a frequency of 6 days/week for 2 weeks. Outcome measures included maximum inspiratory pressure as a primary outcome measure and QoL scores as a secondary outcome measure. All outcome measures were measured for all patients 2 weeks before surgery, 24h before surgery, and 24h after surgery. Level of maximum inspiratory pressure and QoL scores were higher in the physical therapy group compared with the control group (P<0.05). It was concluded that preoperative respiratory physical therapy improves inspiratory muscle strength and QoL scores in patients undergoing upper abdominal surgeries.