A French study has found that chest physiotherapy is not effective in infants hospitalized with acute bronchiolitis. The findings of the randomized trial have been published in PLoS Medicine.
The researchers enrolled nearly 500 children aged 15 days to 2 years who were admitted to seven French hospitals for a first episode of acute bronchiolitis. The study showed that a physiotherapy technique using increased exhalation and assisted cough, a technique commonly used in France, does not reduce time to recovery in this population.
“Our results did not support the recommendation that chest physiotherapy be routinely performed in hospitalized infants with acute bronchiolitis,” the researchers concluded.
Source: PLoS Medicine
