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Daily colored sputum
- Question
- Hello, my 5 year old son has colored sputum (green - yellow) daily. Is it due to chronic colonization by staph? He takes Pulmozyme® daily and has respiratory physiotherapy every day also. He has daily sputum that we are trying to evacuate every day. Does this mucus affect his lungs? Even after antibiotic treatment, it's always coming back. What can we do to help him more? Thank you for your reply.
- Answer
- Dear Madam,
The color of secretions actually reflects the importance of the infection. The more the sputum is yellow and green, the more your son is infected. If you find that it comes too soon after the antibiotic cures, you must ask your treating doctor (CF Center). Multiple infections are the cause of the deterioration of the lung and we must try to space them as possible.
For the physiotherapy, several questions arise: how long are the sessions? What is the technique used? Does your son spit sufficiently during the sessions? When do you use sprays?
To optimize the physiotherapy care, you have to use Pulmozyme® and the bronchodilator before the physiotherapy session and do the antibiotics after the session.
The criteria to stop the session should be the decrease in the amount of sputum and clarification. Anyway we stop after 20-30 min. In terms of the technique used, for patients having very much secretions, the slow Forced Expiration Technique (FET) is very effective. If the child is still very crowded, we prefere to do again a session later in the day, and possibly call the CF Center to see if it would be appropriate to begin a treatment.
The fact that your son has much secretions is not necessarily negative. This shows the move of the sputum and make it easier to remove. Stagnation is much more harmful and causes the proliferation of infections.
What could also help is the practice of endurance sport. Indeed by increasing its respiratory volumes during exercise, it would help the mobilization and removal of secretions.
I hope I have answered your questions.
Charlotte Laccarrière - 09.12.2013
