Therapy

Use incentive spirometry  ^a 

Ask patients to breathe as deeply as possible 10 times every 2 hours from 8 am to 10 pm, and at night if awake until their chest pain settles. 

Patients with acute chest pain have fewer pulmonary complications if they breathe   deeply every 2 hours when awake.

Patient	Treatment	Comparison	Outcome	CER	RRR (95% CI)	NNT (95% CI)
sickle cell disease and acute chest or back pain a	incentive spirometry	no spirometry	pulmonary complications (atelectasis or infiltrates) at 3 days	42%	87% (30% to 100%)	3 (2 to 8)