It's a device people are often given after surgery, to help them increase the strength of their inhale. It probably won't hurt you, but it won't help much unless you have had surgery recently, like within the last couple of days. The issue with COPD isn't the inhale most of the time, it's the exhale that's important. Getting out all the air we took in is very difficult for us and that's what often causes air-trapping, which leads to being short of breath (sob). We'll almost always take in enough air; we often need help in getting it out. That's where pursed lip breathing (PLB) comes in; that helps us get all the stale air out.

Sometimes people with COPD don't have enough inspiratory power to actually inhale their medications. That's one place where something like the incentive spirometer might be helpful, but there are other things like you can use like balloons that are a lot cheaper and easier to find and use.

What is it?

What is it?