What is a pulmonary toilet?
Pulmonary toilet, sometimes referred to as pulmonary hygiene, is simply a set of procedures used to clear mucus and secretions from the trachea and bronchial tree. An odd sounding term, it makes sense to break it down: the word pulmonary refers to the lungs whereas the etymology for the word toilet is related to the French toilette, which refers to body care and hygiene; this root is used in words such as toiletry that also relate to cleansing.
What are these methods?
In short they involve deep breathing, incentive spiratomy, postural drainage, and percussion.
Incentive spiratomy is a kind of lung exercise. The method is to breathe into a device with a ball that bounces up when blown into. The object is to blow hard enough that the ball bounces higher. This method is supposed to keep your airways open (by making you breathe forcefully), thus preventing something called atelectasis (a collapsed lung).
Pulmonary toilet is typically indicated for patients who are receiving artificial respiration (being on a ventilator). It may also be indicated for surgery or other bedridden patients who may have breathing complications from lying in bed for prolonged periods of time.