Effectiveness of Respiratory and Abdominal Strength Exercises in Postoperative Patients with Abdominal Surgeries: A Narrative Review

Abdominal surgeries are performed to diagnose and/or treat different medical conditions by opening the abdominal cavity through large incision in the abdominal wall. Weakness of abdominal muscles, pulmonary complications and incisional pain are more common after abdominal surgeries. There has been significant research on managing such complications by using variety of physiotherapy interventions. This review intended to narrate the available literature on the effects of respiratory exercise and abdominal muscle strength training on pain and abdominal muscle strength after major abdominal surgeries. A systematic search of online databases was conducted and based on the reference lists of selected articles, further studies were identified. Twelve articles that met the inclusion criteria were analysed. Many of the previous studies concluded that respiratory exercise and abdominal muscle strength training after open abdominal surgeries improve abdominal muscle strength and decrease pain. Respiratory functions were also reported to be improved. But recent evidence regarding such effectiveness is insufficient and these aspects need to be explored in future.