Bachelor of Physiotherapy (Honours)
Summary
Following cardiac surgery, up to one in four patients can develop life-threatening lung complications.
One factor that may contribute to this is breathing muscle weakness.
Evidence suggests that training the breathing muscles prior to surgery reduces the risk of developing these complications – but these interventions are not readily implemented, because the relationship between breathing muscle strength and lung complications isn’t known.
Ms d’Arx’s study will be the first to focus on this relationship, and will inform future research for preventing lung complications in cardiac surgery.
