Postoperative pulmonary complications in upper abdominal surgery. A randomized clinical comparison between physiotherapy and blow-bottles.

Blow-bottles were compared with conventional postoperative pulmonary physiotherapy in a randomized trial of 98 patients undergoing gastric or biliary tract surgery. Radiological evidence of postoperative pulmonary lesions found by "blind" evaluation of the films occurred with the same frequency in the two groups (30.6%). Blow-bottles were found preferable to physiotherapy because they are less time-consuming.