Polio Place

A service of Post-Polio Health International

underventilation

Pflex® (my new friend) and More and Physician Response

Carol Wallace, MEd, Certified Rehabilitation Counselor, Austin, Texas

I contracted polio in 1951 at age 5. Acute and rehabilitation hospitalization totaled two-and-a-half years with six months of iron lung treatment. Both my upper extremities and are paralyzed with only partial and weak right-hand motor function. As an adult, my forced vital capacity averages 48 percent. I require noninvasive mechanical ventilation whenever supine.

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How Polio Survivors Can Avoid Tracheostomies

John R. Bach, MD, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, University Hospital, University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, New Jersey, is in charge of the Center for Noninvasive Mechanical Ventilation Alternatives and Pulmonary Rehabilitation and has spoken and written extensively. His most recent contribution to the literature is “Management of Patients with Neuromuscular Disease” by Hanley & Belfus (2003).

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Tests for Breathing Problems If You Have a Neuromuscular Condition

Reviewed by Nicholas S. Hill, MD, Tufts-New England Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts

If you have a neuromuscular condition such as post-polio syndrome, ALS, or Duchenne muscular dystrophy, you may not realize that your breathing muscles are weak and can become weaker. You may have difficulty breathing in deeply enough to fully expand your lungs or coughing strongly enough to clear mucus from your lungs.

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