Question re: pleural effusion and atelectasis?

[fire_ice]

hello,
pleural effusion will inevitably will have an associated atelectasis as it will compress the underlying lung tissue,so few things for the managment will be,
1 Identify the underlying cause and manage that.
2 As atelectasis involves loss of lung volume so any form of technique that will increase the lung volume eg. deep breathing exercises,positioning,mobilization,sniff,incentive spirometry,IPPB....etc will be helpful but sine every patient is different so the need for appropiate selection for a particular patient exists.
3 If the patient is quite able to do any form of active exercises then no better technique to improve lung volumes that mobilizations like lying to sitting, moving from bed to chair,sit to stand ,walking .......
4 If the pateint is bed ridden ie on ventilators/or associated problems the second best thing to improve lung volumes is body positioning with the sound lung the underlying but if the pleural effusion large then affected lung will be the underlying one.
5.If the chest drains are connected which is important to drain the larger effusions coughing should be encouraged it will aid in draining IF NOT connected to the drain this should not be attempted .
6 IPPB is usually only prescribed for those individuals who cannot manage their tidal volume so the lung volumes are aided through IPPB eg. Myesthenia gravis resp involvment etc...
hope this will be helpful
Regards

[hasanj]

thank you for your reply,
but I know that Any positive pressure is contra indication with non drainaged pleural effusion