ABSTRACT
Background: Inadequate ventilation due to shallow or monotonous respiration poses a risk to both ventilated and non-ventilated patients, as monotonous respiration is a major factor in the development of atelectasis. Neurophysiological facilitation of respiration employed by physiotherapists is useful in chest care of the unconscious mechanically ventilated patients, as it activates reflex respiratory movement responses. However, studies on its acute effects on cardiopulmonary parameters are limited and unclear, hence this study. Method: An experimental study was conducted on 10 mechanically ventilated ICU patients of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Edo State. The mean age of patients was 66.2 (± 8.46) years. To assess the pre and post difference in Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP), Diastolic Blood Pressure (DBP), Heart Rate (HR), Oxygen Saturation (SpO2), Respiratory Rate (RR), and Mean Arterial Pressure (MAP) upon the application of perioral pressure and intercostal stretch Neurophysiological Facilitation (NPF) of respiration techniques as well as study the cardiopulmonary responses between male and female gender. Description statistics of mean and standard deviation were used to summarise the data. Inferential statistics of paired t- test and independent t- test were used to test the hypotheses at alpha level 0.05. Result: Statistical analysis showed significant improvement in diastolic blood pressure, respiratory rate, and mean arterial pressure after application of NPF of respiration techniques. DBP improved significantly (P=0.005) after application of perioral pressure. RR improved significantly after application of perioral pressure (p= 0.014) and MAP improved significantly after the application of perioral pressure (P=0.022). RR improved significantly after the application of intercostal stretch (P= 0.001). All outcome measures (SBP, DBP, HR, SPO2, RR, and MAP) showed no statistical significance (p > 0.05) when compared between male and female gender. Conclusion: NPF of respiration can improve the ventilation of mechanically ventilated patients as well as the facilitation of deep breaths that deters atelectasis in the unconscious ventilated patients. This study also showed that gender does not influence cardiopulmonary parameters to NPF protocols in mechanically ventilated unconscious patients. Key words: Neurophysiological facilitation of respiration, perioral pressure, intercostal stretch, mechanically ventilated patients.
