Efficacy of pursed lip breathing with bhastrika pranayama vs incentive spirometry in rehabilitating post Covid 19 follow up-a randomized control study

Background Covid 19 infection has severe impact in various systems of the body, but primarily it affects the respiratory system by destroying the lung tissues, and thus leading to an acute medical emergency. There is an alarming sign to be noted, on the raise of post covid patient's numbers, who arrive at post covid follow up special clinic with persistent breathing difficulty. Hence this study focuses on post hospitalization pulmonary rehabilitation with an effective home exercise to improve the pulmonary ventilation. Aim This study aims to explore the efficacy of combining various breathing exercise to improve the pulmonary ventilation. Methods An Experimental study was carried out with 48 participants. On the basis of inclusion and exclusion criteria, all of these participants were categorized into experimental and control group. Experimental group received pursed lip breathing exercise with bhastrika pranayama and the control group receivedIncentive spirometry.The FVC & FEV1 parameters in PFT were recorded pre and post to the intervention by blinded tester who was not aware about group allotment. Result: Post test FEV1 experimental group shows a mean value of 75.75 and standard deviation of 3.7997 and showing a T value of 5.2756 with a p value of <0.0001.Post test FEV1 shows significant improvement among both groups. Conclusion The present study analyzed efficacy of intervention for patients with dyspnea in post covid follow up clinic. The patients are not only having respiratory complaints but also had complaints of various dysfunctions. So the other factors should also need to be assessed and a proper intervention should be rendered in order to prevent re-hospitalization.