Easy Way to Remember Postural Drainage Positions

When we suffer from flu and cold, our body develops mucus inside the lungs which comes out when we cough. But when this gets worse and pneumonia develops then we need to think of other ways to take out that extra sputum. Postural drainage positions are a scientific way yet a very easy procedure to drain out sputum from our lungs.

In this article, I am going to simplify the postural drainage posture so that you can practice it at home. So read the article till the end to get the most out of it.

Postural Drainage Position, Take out Cough from Chest| बलगम निकालने की एक्सर्साइज़

Postural drainage positions to drain out sputum

The postural drainage technique is a procedure in which the body is postured such that fluid can drain out under the effect of gravity. To understand this we need to learn a little about lung anatomy. We will not go deeper into the anatomy will just cover an overview.

So we have two lungs inside the rib cage, lungs are connected to the nostrils through the trachea bronchi and bronchioles. Each lung is subdivided into three lobes, upper lobes, middle lobe, and lower lobe. So when we suffer from pneumonia the mucus formation occurs in the lung and can affect any of the lobes.

For the effectiveness of the postural drainage technique, the body posture would depend on which lobe is affected and is filled with mucus.

The aim of the posture is to drain out mucus from the bronchi to the trachea and then finally cough it out. So let's start with the upper lobe. Along with this, you can also follow breathing exercises for better results.

Postural drainage positions for upper lobe

To drain out mucus from the upper lobe under the influence of gravity we need to sit straight. Sitting straight well drains the fluid from the upper lobe towards the bronchi.  We need to set in this position for a minimum of 10 minutes. If sitting straight is not possible we can also sit against the wall using pillows this will give a better rest position.

Postural drainage positions for middle lobe

For postural drainage posture for the middle lobe, we first need to incline our bed to roughly 15 degrees of the angle. You can simply use bricks or any other platform to raise one end of the bad.

Now, suppose I've my left side middle lobe affected, for this we need to lie down on our right side with the head being on the lower-lying end of the bed. Keep pillows under your head as shown in the figure. Once again maintain this posture for 10 minutes and then come to normal posture and cough out the sputum.

To address the right side middle lobe, apply the same posture technique on the left side.

Lower lobe postural drainage position

For lower lobe postural drainage we have two different postures. This is because the lower lobe is anatomically further divided into the anterior lobe and posterior lobe.

The anterior lobe lies in the front of the chest and the posterior lobe lies in the back, our postural drainage position depends on which lobe is affected.

The bed will remain in the inclined position as in our previous social drainage position. For the anterior lobe, we will lie on our back with our head on the lower end of the bed position. Keep the pillows as shown in the figure, after 10 minutes come to the sitting position and cough out the sputum.

For the posterior lobe lie on your tummy with a pillow under your hip and head. As mentioned, maintain it for 10 minutes and then sit down and cough out sputum.

Final word

There are a few things you need to keep in mind when doing these natural drainage positions the first and most important thing does not to eat for one and half hours previous to the exercise.

When lying on an inclined bed when you feel that you are choking immediately sit down and rest yourself.

We the physiotherapist also give percussion, tapping, and vibration on the chest s that the sputum gets loose and it will help to easily drain out. This is not possible at home as it requires special techniques but maintaining the posture itself is equally beneficial.

Keep Reading: Importance of Face Masks During Flu Season

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Source: https://physiosunit.com/postural-drainage-position/

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