HFCWO for Chest Physiotherapy Airway Clearance

As the population of mankind is growing day by day, the diseases are also growing. These diseases are being encountered by advanced treatments. Lung diseases are the diseases which are growing the most. It has been the basic nature of man to change according to the need of the situation. HFCWO (High Frequency Chest Wall Oscillations) is one of those things that man has discovered when they required a more effective, convenient and comfortable way of providing patients with chest physiotherapy over the conventional method of manual Chest Physiotherapy (CPT).

HFCWO (High Frequency Chest Wall Oscillations)

HFCWO is a modern method of providing the patients with chest physiotherapy which involves mobilizing or loosening the mucus from the walls of the lung’s airway. In this method, oscillations are provided at a variable frequency until the mucus shears away from the walls of a lung’s airway toward the main airway so that the mucus can be expectorated or suctioned more easily.

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Manual Chest Physiotherapy (CPT)

Manual Chest Physiotherapy is a method to mobilize or loosen the mucus from the walls of the lung’s airway. Manual Chest Physiotherapy involves percussions (clapping or cupping), vibrators and postural drainage techniques in which the patient is placed in a downward vertical position. These techniques are used to shear off the mucus from the walls of the lung’s airway toward the main airway so that the mucus can be expectorated or suctioned out.

Advantages of HFCWO over CPT

1. Consistent: HFCWO provides consistency every time unlike the CPT as the chest physiotherapist may get tired after some time and provide the patient with non uniform percussions.
2. Full coverage: HFCWO will provide patient with a 360^o coverage of the thorax. This will be more effective as all the lobes of the lungs will get the oscillations at the same time unlike in CPT where the percussions are provided to a single lobe at one time and the percussions are localized at single point
3. Independent: HFCWO will make the patient become more independent as the patient would not have to rely on a chest physiotherapist for the treatment as the devices that offer HFCWO are very user friendly and can be used by themselves .
4. Comfortable: In manual chest physiotherapy, old patients or children may get hurt as they have got weak bones. In case of HFCWO, this risk gets diminished as HFCWO equipments provides a variable frequency by which the patient can first get used to the process by receiving low frequency oscillations and then it can be increased once the patient is more comfortable.
5. Less Physical Contact: HFCWO provided by vest requires very less physical contact between the patient and the therapist. The only physical contact required is to set up the vest and to remove the vest.
6. Cost effective: Once the patient buys the equipment which provides HFCWO, then they will not have to call the chest physiotherapist everyday and pay them for every sitting. HFCWO equipments are very easy to use so they can be administered by the patient or a relative and this will save the cost in longer run.

HFCWO is finding its necessity in the physiotherapy and to support that there are many equipments which work on the principle of HFCWO. One of these equipments is SmartVest. It is a USA made product by Electromed Inc. It provides oscillations to the patient from the frequency of 5 Hz to 20Hz per second which in turn has the capability of producing 18000 mini coughs which is a lot to loosen the mucus from the walls of the lung’s airway. This process will provide relief to the patient by clearing out the airways. This will also provide relief to the physiotherapist leaving the patient relieved and happy.

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