Maintain airway clear

1. Be aware of the breathing conditions; if there is any unsmooth breathing, continuous sleeping condition, unusual breathing sound, or discomfort; please inform our medical staff.
2. After surgery, take deep breath and cough effectively at least once every 1 to 2 hours within 24-48 hours after surgery.

Stay an appropriate position and reinforce body turning

1. Before patients regain their consciousness, help them lie supinated with their head slightly elevated to 30-45 degree.
2. When blood pressure is stable, take a sitting position in favor of diaphragm descending in order to improve the expansion of lung and smooth drainage of the tube.
3. Turning your body over once every 1-2 hours. Please do not pull and drag the drainage tube.
4. Different types of surgery have different lying positions. Please follow the instruction given by our medical staff.

Reduce pain and improve comfort

1. When taking a deep breath or coughing effectively, stabilize the wound with your hands or a pad to reduce painfulness.
2. To prevent discomfort, try to stabilize chest tube and operated side when changing positions of your body.
3. Notify our medical staff for analgesics if pain is unbearable after the operation.
4. Consult our anesthesia physicians for pain control analgesic device

Maintain the function of lung

Our medical staff would instruct you to use the following means to improve lung expansion, do work on it every 4 hours.

1. Steam inhalation and chest percussion.
2. The use of Triflow II.
3. Take deep breath and cough effectively.
4. Taking semi-flower position and turning body around.
5. When lying on the bed, work on some physical activities with your limbs.

Maintain the patency of drainage system

The purpose of chest tube is to drain fluid, blood, and air in order to reduce the volume of pleura cavity and to recover the negative pressure in pleural cavity.

1. Keep the patency of the chest tube. Avoid kinking, obstruction, and dislodgement of the chest tube and bottle.
2. Place a Kelly clamp by the bed. When the chest tube or bottle is dislodged or disconnected to drainage tube during the replacement, Kelly clamp can be applied immediately to prevent thoracic cavity.
3. If drainage function works well, we should be able to observe water waves going up and down.

Exercises for shoulder and arms after thoracic surgery

1. Flex the arm at the operated side with one hand over abdomen; hold the wrist with the other hand of the healthy side; pull them away from the abdomen in a curve-shaped route , raise up to the head and then return to the initial position. Remember to inhale when raising your hands and exhale when putting down your hands.
2. Stretch your arms with palms facing upward. Raise your arms over your head like an arc; then return to your initial position.
3. Raise your arms to the height of your shoulder with your elbow right-angled; rotate your shoulder with your forearms forward and backward to make your shoulders rotate inward and outward.

Health education after discharge

1. When patients return home, they should continue respiratory training and effective expectoration to prevent sputum acumination.
2. Patients should avoid attending any public places or have any contact with people who have upper respiratory infection.
3. Avoid working in an environment with dust, fog, soot, and chemical irritant.
4. Quit smoking and avoid second-hand smoking.
5. Maintain well-nutrient and a balanced diet.
6. Rest and exercise plenty.
7. Return to the hospital if there is severe pain or coughing with blood.
8. Return to the hospital if the condition deteriorates; do not panic if you feel tiredness and debilitated the first week after the operation.