Efficacy of a Contract-Relax Technique in the Physical Therapy Management of Diaphragmatic Paresis After Cardiac Surgery

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Detailed Summary

Postoperative respiratory complications are common complications of patients after cardiac surgery and increase morbidity and mortality and hospital length of stay. Diaphragmatic dysfunction accounts for between 2 and 15% of these complications. Diaphragmatic paresis is one of these dysfunctions and could be due to an intra-operative phrenic nerve injury or harvesting of a mammary artery responsible for diaphragmatic devascularization. It alters the ventilatory mechanics and causes acute respiratory distress often requiring the use of mechanical ventilation. The diagnosis of this dysfunction can be made by thoracic ultrasound with assessment of diaphragmatic excursion. For patient with paresis, ultrasound criteria is an excursion \< 25 mm after deep inspiration for at least one of the two hemidiaphragms. This dysfunction is most often transient in the postoperative period, but it can also become persistent. Contract-Relax (CR) physical therapy technique can be applied to any muscle, providing muscle strengthening, neuromotor stimulation, and a gain in joint amplitude. Currently, post-cardiac surgery management of respiratory physiotherapy is the same for a patient with or without paresis. Moreover, the CR technique of the diaphragm is not part of this "standard" rehabilitation. The objective of this study is to determine if the CR technique associated with the current respiratory management allows an early rehabilitation of patients with diaphragmatic paresis after cardiac surgery.

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