Rehabilitation Therapist Warned Of The Danger Of Ballooning In COVID-19

Rehabilitation therapist warned of the danger of ballooning in COVID-19

Doctor of Medicine, rehabilitation physician Alexei Shmonin spoke about how inflating balloons can increase lung damage after coronavirus.

Photo: Elmira College

On his page, Alexey Shmonin warned patients with coronavirus about the dangers of rehabilitation by inflating balloons, which doctors sometimes mistakenly recommend.

“Inflating balloons can be dangerous especially for a COVID-19 patient. In the field of modern medicine, the use of balls and other breathing exercises belongs to physiotherapy exercises. And all exercise therapy doctors are taught not to use balls, but other specialists, who are not related to rehabilitation and do not know about the dangers of balls, often recommend them to patients, "Shmonin wrote.

A rehabilitation doctor drew the attention of his readers to the fact that COVID-19 is not an ordinary pneumonia. With coronavirus infection, the alveoli are immediately affected and interstitial inflammation develops. With COVID-19, massive tissue damage occurs in the lungs and it breaks easily.

“Any doctor from the COVID-19 department will tell you that on computed tomography in many patients, a lot of lung tissue is affected by the virus. There is a mess in the lungs. In this case, the airways (bronchi and trachea) are usually passable and therefore there is no or little sputum and moist cough. It is necessary to allow the lung to form a scar in the acute phase of the disease, which will allow the lung to be used after recovery,”noted Aleksey Shmonin.

The expert stressed that a sharp and heavy load, like inflating balloons, increases the damage and can cause additional tearing of the alveoli, which will cause the scar to form longer. The result of lung overload by rapid and strong movement of the chest can be barotrauma, which manifests itself in the following conditions:

Hemoptysis (blood in sputum)

• Pneumothorax (ruptured lung tissue)
• Additional damage to the alveoli and an increase in shortness of breath,
• The development of emphysema,
• Increased pulmonary fibrosis.

The doctor also said that balloon inflation is not a rehabilitation technology and is not used worldwide, primarily due to the lack of clinical studies on its effectiveness and safety. In addition, while inflating the balloons, it is difficult to adjust the patient load, which is large enough for a person with a serious illness.

“In case of injury, for example, of the lower leg, we try to organize rest and apply ice. We don't run with a sore leg. Why should it be different with a lung injury? In the acute period of COVID-19, a very light exercise can be given with gentle inhalation and exhalation. A prerequisite for the patient's comfort. It should not be hard for him, there should be no tension in the chest and the oxygen saturation in the blood should not decrease (can be measured with a pulse oximeter). In the acute period of COVID-19, the patient must learn abdominal breathing, pursed-lip breathing and other breathing techniques that will allow him to breathe calmly and freely, even when the lungs are affected without harm to them,”the doctor said.

Alexey Andreevich also recalled the conclusions of leading rehabilitation specialists from Italy that standard rehabilitation programs are not suitable for patients with coronavirus pneumonia, so special care should be taken.