Fisioterapia respiratória em crianças com doença falciforme e síndrome torácica aguda Respiratory therapy in children with sickle cell disease and acute chest syndrome

Objective: To systematically review the medical literature to identify chest physiotherapy techniques applied to children with sickle cell disease and acute chest syndrome, and to report their level of evidence and recommendation. Data source: A bibliographic search of published articles found in Medline, Lilacs, SciELO and Cochrane databases, between 1995 and 2009, was carried out using the following keywords: “sickle cell disease”, “acute chest syndrome”, “physical therapy”, “child”, “incentive spirometry”, in English and Portuguese; all review studies were excluded. The recovered studies were then classified according to their level of evidence and recommendation.