Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Clinical Trials

Flutter therapy is an oscillating positive expiratory pressure (OPEP) technique that combines positive expiratory pressure with airway oscillations to facilitate mobilization and clearance of respiratory secretions. Conventional chest physiotherapy includes deep breathing exercises, incentive spirometry, airway-clearance techniques, splinted coughing and early mobilization to promote lung expansion and secretion clearance. A total of 94 patients aged 40-70 years with mild-to-moderate COPD undergoing elective coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) will be enrolled in this randomized controlled trial and will be randomly allocated into two groups, with 47 participants in each group. The intervention group will receive conventional chest physiotherapy combined with Flutter therapy, while the control group will receive conventional chest physiotherapy alone. Both groups will receive supervised treatment for 5 consecutive postoperative days, with 3 sessions per day, resulting in 15 treatment sessions. Baseline assessment will be performed on postoperative day 1 before commencement of the intervention, and post-intervention assessment will be conducted on postoperative day 5. The study will compare the effects of Flutter-assisted conventional chest physiotherapy versus conventional chest physiotherapy alone on postoperative peak expiratory flow rate, chest expansion and airway clearance.