Effects of Information and Breathing Technique - for Patients With Respiratory Pain in Acute Pulmonary Embolism.
Acute pulmonary embolism (PE) is a serious disease and the third most common cardiovascular disease following myocardial infarction and stroke. The most common symptoms of acute PE are breathlessness and respiratory pain. Although many patients have respiratory pain in acute PE, the treatment of pain is not well described in literature. It is also unclear how long after acute PE the respiratory pain persists. In other conditions with respiratory associated pain, clinical treatment guidelines are available to avoid complications, such as pneumonia, related to impaired respiratory function. The purpose of this randomized controlled multicenter study is to evaluate the effect of a treatment, in patients with respiratory associated acute PE pain, consisting of information on anatomy and physiology in acute PE and breathing technique in addition to usual care treatment. The above treatment will be compared to conventional treatment in PE with respiratory associated pain, which means treatment with analgesics. One hundred sixty patients recruited from the Sahlgrenska University Hospital and Alingsås Hospital will participate in the study. Both groups are examined before and after interventions related to respiratory associated pain, measured with visual analogue scale (VAS), analgesic consumption, lung function measured with Peak Expiratory Flow (PEF), physical disability impairment measured by Disability Rating Index (DRI) and questions about the patients self-efficacy on managing their respiratory associated pain, days hospitalized, pneumonia rate during or after hospitalization, oxygen saturation and patient satisfaction. Both groups are followed from the inclusion date to 14 days after inclusion through physical visits by the physiotherapist during hospital care and by telephone contact after discharge. If the positive clinical experience of the information and breathing technique can be confirmed in the study, the method could be spread and used as an easily accessible new treatment method.
Start: October 2018