Effects of breathing therapy with a dead-space-resistance device on post-cardiac surgical patients

The effects of a dead-space-resistance device (IDSEP breather) on Pao2, Paco2 and functional residual capacity (FRC) in 11 post-cardiac surgical patients were studied. There were no significant changes in Pao2, Paco2 and FRC after the IDSEP therapy. Changes in Pao2 between the pre- and post-IDSEP therapy correlated well with changes in FRC (r = 0.797, P less than 0.01). Breathing therapy with the dead-space-resistance device appeared not to bring any benefit in early post-cardiac surgical patients.