Manual vs. Mechanical Chest Percussion

Three articles are critiqued, each of which reported research findings related to a comparison of manual and mechanical techniques for chest percussion in hospitalized patients suffering from cystic fibrosis. The three articles span a wide range of publication years·1979 through 194; therefore, one would anticipate some advances in the research findings as one progresses through the articles. Because of the 15-year time span covered by the research presented in the articles, the initial review of the articles is presented in chronological order of the publication data of the three articles.

Maxwell and Redmond (1979) reported on the testing of a mechanical device that allowed a cystic fibrosis patient to perform her or his own chest physiotherapy, as opposed to a manual performance of the chest percussion by a health care professional. The mechanical device tested was the Equi-Med percussor that operated at 230 volts and produced 200-to-3,200 strokes per minute using a 10-speed selector switch.

A total of 14 patients were studied by Maxwell and Redmond (1979). The age of the subjects ranged from seven years old to 21 years old. At the time of the testing, all of the subjects were in clinical remission from their cystic fibrosis. Of the 14 subjects, "11 were normally sputum producers and 3 produced sutim only when they had exacerbations of chest infection" (Maxwell & Redmond, 1979, p.

. . .
Webber (1981) study, 13 of the 14 subjects had been admitted to hospital for acute exacerbation of their bronchopulmonary infection, while the fourteenth subject had been admitted to hospital for an initial assessment. Of the 14 subjects, two refused to participate in the test and were withdrawn from the research sample. Of the 12 subjects remaining in the test sample, nine subjects "required intravenous antibiotics and three required only oral antibiotics" (Pryor, Parker, & Webber, 1981, p. 123). The 12 subjects were studied over a four-day period. In this test, however, unlike the earlier test conducted by Maxwell and Redmond (1979), the subjects performed the chest therapies on themselves both with the mechanical device and using the manual procedure. The manual procedure in this test involved one or two forced expirations "from mid to low lung volume combined with periods of relaxed diaphragmatic breathing" (Pryor, Parker, & Webber, 1981, pp. 123-124). The results of this test found that the manual method of chest percussion produced a greater volume of sputum than did the Salford percussor. The researchers determined, however, that the volume differences were not statistically significant. Pryor, Parker, and Webber (1
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Maxwell Redmond, Parker Webber, McDougal Schoumacher, RESEARCH ARTICLES, chest percussion, parker webber, pryor parker webber, pryor parker, Pryor Parker, webber 1981, parker webber 1981, Maxwell Redomond, CDX Spiro, Bauer McDougal, maxwell redmond 1979, maxwell redmond, redmond 1979, mechanical device, bauer mcdougal schoumacher, bauer mcdougal, mcdougal schoumacher, mcdougal schoumacher 1994, schoumacher 1994, Journal Pediatrics,
Approximate Word count = 1592
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)