How to Use an Incentive Spirometer

An incentive spirometer is a handheld medical device. that helps retrain your lungs to take slow, deep breaths. Exercising your lungs with an incentive spirometer helps you maintain healthy air sacs (alveoli), which are where oxygen and carbon dioxide are exchanged.

An incentive spirometer can be used after surgery. It can also help you manage a lung condition such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pneumonia, or asthma.

This article will go over what you should know about using an incentive spirometer, including a step-by-step guide and tips for keeping the device clean.

How Incentive Spirometers Are Used

An incentive spirometer teaches you how to take slow, deep breaths. It can help you build your lung capacity while recovering from surgery or help you reach breathing goals when you have a lung disease.

An incentive spirometer can help with:

• Emphysema
• Chronic bronchitis
• Bronchiectasis
• Asthma
• Recovery from a chest or abdominal surgery (such as lung cancer surgery or cardiac bypass surgery)
• Decreasing the risk of pneumonia and atelectasis (lung collapse) after surgery

A 2019 study showed that using incentive spirometry after lung surgery helped patients avoid complications such as pneumonia. However, other research has shown that using an incentive spirometer is not as helpful after bariatric or weight loss surgery.

Getting Your Incentive Spirometer

There are different models of incentive spirometers, ranging from under $20 to over $100. You may need a prescription if you want to file an insurance claim for the device. If you have just had surgery, the hospital may give you an incentive spirometer to take home with you.

Your healthcare provider or respiratory therapist will tell you how often and for how long to use the incentive spirometer at home.

Most of the time, spirometry can be done every hour or two. Your provider may recommend more or less frequent use, depending on what your needs are.

After surgery, you may need to use your spirometer for however long you will be at risk for lung complications. Usually, that means you'll have to keep using it until you are up and moving about as much as you did before you had surgery.

How to Use an Incentive Spirometer

Here's a step-by-step guide to using an incentive spirometer.

1. Sit upright in a comfortable chair or on the edge of your bed.
2. Hold the device upright with both hands. Slide the indicator to the target level (the indicator is usually on the left near the mouthpiece). Your healthcare provider will tell you where to start, but 1250 millimeters (mm) is a good ballpark. You may need to increase or decrease this level, depending on your goals.
3. Place the mouthpiece in your mouth and seal your lips around it. Try not to block the mouthpiece with your tongue.
4. Breathe in slowly and as deeply as possible. The piston below the indicator should rise inside the column.
5. When you've reached your full inhale capacity, remove the mouthpiece and hold your breath for at least three seconds (or as long as you can). The piston will drop to the bottom of the column. If you start to feel dizzy or lightheaded, take a break.
6. Exhale normally, then rest. Cough to clear your airway of mucus if needed.
7. Reset the indicator to the level that you reached during your best effort.

Repeat these steps 10 to 12 times every hour that you are awake, or as often as your provider tells you to. If you do not reach your goal, do not get discouraged. You will improve with practice and as you heal.

Do Incentive Spirometers Have Risks?

There are few risks or complications from regular incentive spirometer use. However, you should pay attention to how you're feeling when you're using it. If you feel lightheaded while you're using your incentive spirometer, take a break.

Rarely, using spirometry has been linked to collapsed lungs (pneumothorax) in people with emphysema, but usually only if they are using it too often or breathing too hard.

People with certain medical conditions or risks should not use an incentive spirometer, including:

• People who just had eye surgery (forceful breathing can put stress on the eyes)
• People with a collapsed lung
• People with an aneurysm in the chest, abdomen, or brain
  

How to Clean Your Incentive Spirometer and Tips for Comfortable Use

After each use of your incentive spirometer, clean the mouthpiece with warm water and soap. Wait more than 24 hours before reusing a disposable mouthpiece on your spirometer.

You'll probably feel some discomfort as you work on strengthening your lungs with an incentive spirometer.

If you are using a spirometer after surgery with a chest or abdominal incision, taking a deep breath is important but can be painful. Some people find it helpful to hold a pillow tightly against their incision when they're taking deep breaths.

Follow your healthcare provider or respiratory therapist's instructions. Let them know if you run into any trouble using the spirometer or if you have questions or concerns.

Summary

Incentive spirometry is a breathing treatment that you can do after surgery or to help manage a chronic lung condition. Using an incentive spirometer can help strengthen your lungs and prevent infections like pneumonia.

You may get a spirometry device when you're discharged home from the hospital after surgery. A respiratory therapist or another provider will tell you how often to use the spirometer and where to set the level the first time you use it.

Using an incentive spirometer can be tricky at first, and it might be a little uncomfortable, but you'll get the hang of it with practice. Each time you use the device, try to do better than you did the last time to make progress on your breathing goals.