Who can benefit from cardiopulmonary physical therapy?
Cardiovascular and pulmonary physical therapy is designed to help individuals improve their breathing and aerobic capacity by teaching them more effective breathing techniques and exercising them under fully-monitored conditions. By improving cardiopulmonary function, the body becomes more efficient at using oxygen, leading to less shortness of breath and improvement in overall quality of life.
What is cardiopulmonary physical therapy?
Each patient and diagnosis are different. Physical therapy treatments used to treat cardiopulmonary conditions vary and can include:
- Graded cardiovascular exercise with monitoring of cardiac and pulmonary function
- Graded resistance exercises as appropriate to improve efficiency of breath
- Airway clearance techniques
- Soft tissue and joint mobilizations to improve efficiency of ribcage mobility
Patient education is an important element of your treatment and may include:
- Discussion of anatomy, physiology, diagnosis, and expected progress
- Discussion of functional limitations and compensatory strategies
- Discussion of balancing rest and exercise
- Discussion of use of supplemental oxygen when appropriate