Does preoperative inspiratory muscle training reduce postoperative pulmonary complications and duration of hospital stay in adults undergoing cardiac and major abdominal surgery?
Preoperative inspiratory muscle training may reduce postoperative pulmonary complications and hospital length of stay in adults undergoing cardiac and major abdominal surgery, though the evidence is limited by potential biases.
We found evidence that preoperative IMT was associated with a reduction of postoperative atelectasis, pneumonia, and duration of hospital stay in adults undergoing cardiac and major abdominal surgery. The potential for overestimation of treatment effect due to lack of adequate blinding, small-study effects, and publication bias needs to be considered when interpreting the present findings.
Katsura et al. (2015) studied this question.