Respiratory Innovation Wales Ltd.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a common preventable and treatable respiratory condition. Its main symptoms include, breathlessness, cough and frequent chest infections. Many people with COPD struggle with excessive production of sputum, resulting in more hospital admissions and worse symptoms affecting quality of life.
Guidelines suggest techniques to help clear sputum but there is not strong evidence behind these. In particular we don't know how effective cough clearance techniques are and indeed if any are better than others. This study will recruit people admitted to hospital with an exacerbation of COPD who have excessive sputum and randomise them to receive a hand-held airways clearance device or chest physiotherapy exercises. We will compare symptoms, quality of life, treatment burden and hospital admissions over the following year.