3 : It is suggested that deep breathing exercises provide the same benefit as incentive spirometry in the preoperative and postoperative setting to prevent postoperative pulmonary complications .
Absence of benefit of incentive spirometry in low-risk patients undergoing elective cholecystectomy. A controlled randomized study.
To determine the potential benefit of incentive spirometry , which has been advocated to prevent pulmonary complications after upper-abdominal surgery , we compared a group of patients receiving incentive spirometry  to another group receiving no specialized postoperative respiratory care . Forty patients in the American Society of Anesthesiologists ' class 1 and 2 who were undergoing cholecystectomy ( through right subcostal incision ) were included in the study and were r and omly allocated to one of the two groups . Patients receiving incentive spirometry were encouraged by a specialized respiratory physiotherapist to breathe deeply for five minutes hourly , 12 times daily , for three postoperative days . No statistically significant difference between the two groups was found in the radiologic evidence of postoperative pulmonary complications , arterial oxygen pressure , spirometric measurement , and clinical evaluation at the second or fourth postoperative day ( or both ) . In particular , deterioration on the chest x-ray film at the fourth postoperative day was observed in eight of 20 patients in the group receiving incentive spirometry and in six of 20 in the control group . Our study confirms the postoperative deterioration of respiratory function after upper-abdominal surgery and demonstrates the lack of therapeutic values of  incentive spirometry  in these patients at low risk for pulmonary complications
3 : It is suggested that deep breathing exercises provide the same benefit as incentive spirometry in the preoperative and postoperative setting to prevent postoperative pulmonary complications .