The Role of Incentive Spirometry in the Control of Pulmonary Complications after Surgery

Pulmonary complications as one of the most common, important and costly complications after surgery play an important role in the incidence of disability and mortality of patients. The purpose of this Article is to review studies on the effects of the use of incentive spirometry in reducing pulmonary complications after surgery.

This systematic review by searching the keywords of pulmonary complications, spirometry, incentive spirometry and surgery in valid Persian databases Google Scholar, SID, IranDoc, Iran Medex and Magiran and searching English articles in the reputable English databases Web of Sciences, PubMed, ProQuest, Google Scholar, Science Direct and Scopus from 1997 to 2020 and A total of 844 articles were found. 14 articles were extracted from them. Inclusion criteria included originality, writing in Persian and English, and consistency with the purpose of the study, and exclusion criteria included not having access to the full version of the article.

In total, 6 articles confirmed the positive effects of incentive spirometry in reducing pulmonary complications, but 8 articles did not provide evidence of these positive effects.
Discussion and

Based on the results, it cannot be said with certainty that the use of this method can be effective in reducing pulmonary complications after surgery. Further studies under specific conditions are needed to achieve the goal and find common ground on the benefits of incentive spirometry.