Percussion Palm Cup: Safety and Usability in Infants and Children With Cystic Fibrosis

Cystic Fibrosis is the most prevalent fatal genetic disease affecting Canadian children and it primarily characterized by a thickening of pulmonary secretions and impaired mucociliary clearance. Chest physiotherapy has been widely used as a standard treatment for sputum mobilization and clearance for individuals with CF. Percussion is one such technique of chest physiotherapy for loosening trapped music within the lungs and can be completed manually or facilitated with a percussion cup. Unfortunately, the exclusive Canadian supplier for the widely use percussor cup has stopped distributing the cups, leaving many hospitals and therapy clinics searching for alternatives to continue airway clearance treatment. The goal of this project is to compare alternative palm cup solutions to the standard, and recommend safe alternative(s) that caregivers can have easy access to.

An average adult hand may be too large and taxing for percussion on infants and children, therefore percussor palm cups facilitate caregivers and physiotherapists. The palm cup mimics the air compressed through cupped hands and can be used in conjunction with other physiotherapy techniques and has been shown to have a positive impact on symptoms. Engineers at McMaster University have developed 3D-printed prototypes to use with percussor cups that are made with material similar in consistency and flexibility to the no longer manufactured, standard cup. These cups will be tested in infants and children with cystic fibrosis recruited from the Cystic Fibrosis Clinic at McMaster Children's Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario. Patients/guardians/caregivers will be given 3 percussor palm cups to use over the course of 6 days (one standard cup and two 3D-printed). Each cup will be trialed for 2 days, allowing for equal time dedicated to each. Demographic data and characteristics will be collected at baseline, and measures of safety and usability will be completed at the end of the week of use. Overall satisfaction will be recorded at the end of the questionnaire. Participants will be asked to rate percussion palm cups from least preferred to most preferred and an open-ended question to explain their reasoning on the experience. Thus, the purpose of the study is to examine the safety, usability and user experience of newly designed percussion palm cups using 3-D printing. The results of this study will have important implication to the management of infants and children with CF given the percussion palm cup shortage.