Many people have a difficult time taking a deep breath. A lengthy hospital stay, years of smoking or recovery from recent surgery can make it difficult to breathe deeply. This necessitates the therapeutic use of an incentive spirometer--a medical device designed to help measure and improve a patient's lung function.
Deep Breathing Exercises
Breathing through the incentive spirometer forces a specific breathing pattern with an emphasis on deep breathing. This is useful for those who have difficulty moving or have been inactive for a long time, long-time smokers or those recovering from surgery.
Lung Strengthening
Use an incentive spirometer to strengthen the lungs. Individuals whose lungs have suffered from loss of strength due to surgery, inactivity or long periods in bed can use spirometry to rebuild their lungs to their normal strength.
Disease Prevention
Those who have undergone a coronary artery bypass graft or other serious medical procedure should use an incentive spirometer. The deep breathing pattern the spirometer creates inflates the sections of the lung that have been collapsed, preventing the development of pneumonia and other similar pulmonary diseases.
Pattern Training
Sometimes, the problem treated by an incentive spirometer isn't lung weakness. Extended days in the hospital, where a patient must stay in bed a large portion of the time, interferes with the regular breathing patterns in the patient. He takes shallow breaths, and finds that upon return to normal daily activity, he is winded more often. Train the patient to take deeper breaths again and return to a normal breathing pattern with the incentive spirometer.
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