Awareness about Respiratory Therapy and Prone Positioning Among Physiotherapists and Their Treatment Approaches for Covid-19 Pneumonia Patients

Abstract

Objective: To find out the knowledge of physiotherapists about prone positioning and different respiratory therapy approaches and their application in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia infection. Methodology: A Cross-sectional study was carried out with 104 physiotherapists from Karachi, Pakistan and the data was collected from August to October 2021. Only those physiotherapists included in the survey who were working in the COVID-19 intensive care unit. Due to the non-availability of the standard questionnaire, a pilot study was conducted before data collection with 6 physiotherapists who had more than 10 years of experience to check the validity of the questionnaire.; a self-designed questionnaire was structured. After that, an online survey was conducted. The data was analyzed by IBM SPSS version 21. Results: With regards to ventilated patients, 100 (96%) physiotherapists were aware of prone positioning, 94 (90.4%) were familiar with percussion & vibration whereas only 20 (19.2%) were aware of ultra-shortwave therapy. The analysis of the treatment approaches favored by therapists showed that the frequently applied techniques were prone position 94 (90%) and percussions and vibrations 94 (90.4%) in the ventilated patients. In post-extubated patients, physiotherapists were aware of the application of breathing exercise 101 (97%) & incentive Spirometry 100 (96.2%). Conclusion: It has been concluded that during the pandemic physiotherapist were aware of prone positioning and other respiratory therapy techniques like percussions and spirometry and applied them frequently. Further research is needed for determining what is best practice for this infected population. Keywords: COVID-19, Respiratory Therapy, prone position, physical therapist, pneumonia