Materials and Methods: Fifth-year medical students consisting of healthy individuals were included in the study. The participants were divided into a study group and a control group. The study group received respiratory physiotherapy training and was instructed to perform the exercises for four days. Pulmonary function tests were administered to both groups on the first and fifth days.
Results: A total of 118 healthy individuals with a mean age of 24.27 ± 1.18 years were included in the study. Of these, 66 participants constituted the study group and 52 the control group. In the study group, the second measurement of forced vital capacity (FVC) was significantly lower than the first measurement (p < 0.001). In the control group, no statistically significant difference was observed between pre- and post-measurements. The FVC% predicted was also significantly lower in the second measurement compared to the first in the study group (p < 0.001). Furthermore, the second FVC measurement in the study group was significantly lower than that of the control group (p = 0.045). The change in forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) differed significantly between the study and control groups (p = 0.018). While a decrease in FEV1 was observed in the study group, an increase was
Conclusions: We suggest that individualized physiotherapy protocols and targeted interventions are required to accurately determine the true impact of respiratory physiotherapy in preoperative settings.
