Effects of Adding Incentive Spirometry to Hospital-Based Cardiovascular Rehabilitation on Pulmonary Complications, Hospital Length of Stay, and Clinical-Functional Recovery After Cardiac Surgery: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

TL;DR

A randomized controlled trial found no additional benefit of adding incentive spirometry to cardiac rehabilitation compared with rehabilitation alone in reducing postoperative pulmonary complications, hospital length of stay, or improving clinical-functional recovery after cardiac surgery.

Key findings

• Both groups experienced similar postoperative declines in respiratory muscle strength and walking distance, with no significant differences between interventions
• Adding incentive spirometry to cardiac rehabilitation did not reduce postoperative pulmonary complications or handgrip strength compared to rehabilitation alone
• Hospital length of stay was not significantly different between the incentive spirometry plus rehabilitation group and rehabilitation-only group (difference of 1 day)
• The spirometry group had longer extracorporeal circulation times (98 vs. 76 minutes), a potential confounding factor in surgical complexity

Why this matters at the bedside

This finding suggests that incentive spirometry may not provide additional clinical value when combined with standard hospital-based cardiac rehabilitation protocols post-operatively, potentially simplifying rehabilitation approaches and reducing unnecessary interventions.