Background: One of the most common problems encountered to patients undergoing cardiac surgery is bronchial secretions. In order to increase the effectiveness of airway clearance, active cycle breathing techniques have been used. Aim: To evaluate the effect of active cycle breathing technique on airway clearance among patients underwent cardiac surgery. Design: A quasi experimental research design. Setting: This study was conducted at cardiothoracic intensive care unit in Assuit Heart University Hospitals, Egypt. Subjects: A Purposive sample of 60 adult patients, divided into two equal groups 30 patients each as follows; control group and study group. Two tools were used; tool (I) cardiac surgery patient's assessment and tool (II) physiological and air way clearance indicators. Results; It was clarified that there were significant improvement regarding FVC, FEV1 , SpO2, and SaO2 among the patients in study group rather than control groups on the 3rd day post active cycle breathing technique ,where P value < 0.05. Conclusions: It was concluded that active cycle breathing technique give positive results on improving of spirometric, oxygenic parameters of the study group.Recommendations: It was recommended that active cycle breathing technique should be regarded as a standard component of care for cardiac surgery patients and replication of the study on large probability sampling.
Keywords: Active cycle breathing technique, Air way clearance, Cardiac surgery