Effectiveness of Active Cycle of Breathing Technique on Tetraplegic SCI patient at CRP in Bangladesh

Abstract

Respiratory complication is the most common complication among the patients of SCI with cervical injury in Bangladesh. Chest physiotherapy is the essential intervention for the tetraplegic SCI patients in CRP. ACBT is commonly used for treating the patient who have respiratory complications. To explore the effectiveness of ACBT for the patient with tetraplegic SCI, a study was conducted with a design of randomized control trial. Total 30 samples were selected from hospital patient for this study attending Centre for the rehabilitation of the paralysed (CRP) in between November 2020 to April 2021 from Spinal Cord Injury unit at Savar. A pre-test and post-test intervention protocol was designed where 15 samples were assigned in experimental group for the treatment approach of ACBT along with conventional physiotherapy and other 15 samples were assigned in control group for conventional physiotherapy treatment both for 3 times in a week total 4 weeks for total 12 sessions. Data was collected by using a structured questionnaire related to SCI and respiratory complications. Socio-demographic data were collected by a semistructured questionnaire. Data was analyzed by using SPSS software version 28.0 which focused through tables, paired t-test and unrelated t-test of the parametric test, Wilcoxon t test and Mann Whitney U test of the non-parametric test. A significant improvement of respiratory functions was demonstrated in both groups but the results show the better improvement among most of the variables in the experimental group (ACBT with conventional physiotherapy) (p < 0.05 or higher than p < 0.05) after the post-test which indicate that ACBT with conventional physiotherapy is more effective than the conventional physiotherapy treatment. So, ACBT may be considered as beneficial for tetraplegic SCI patients. Therefore, Physiotherapist may suggest applying this intervention for tetraplegic SCI patients to improve their respiratory condition. Key words: ACBT, SCI, Conventional physiotherapy.