Did You Ask About Abdominal Surgery or Injury? A Learned Disuse Risk Factor for Breathing Dysfunction
Abdominal surgery or injury may affect breathing and, if the disturbed breathing pattern is maintained, illness may result, as illustrated by two case examples. This report describes the process of learned avoidance of pain through which abdominal surgery may cause dysfunctional breathing. This clinical note is a reminder to clinicians to ask about abdominal surgery or injury during the intake. In cases in which symptoms occurred months after the abdominal surgery or injury, it may be possible to reduce the symptoms through teaching effortless breathing.
Illustration of effortless whole body breathing in which the predominant movement occurs in the abdomen rather than the chest (Gorter & Peper, 2011).
A dysfunctional breathing pattern in a young man with frequent seizures (from Peper, 2015).
Improved breathing in a young man with seizures, showing mastery of diaphragmatic breathing (from Peper, 2015).
Example of habitual breathing pattern recorded from a 39-year-old woman with anxiety after a kidney transplant. This line graph shows rapid breathing and a near-total absence of abdominal movement 6 months after surgery (from Peper, Castillo, & Gibney, 2001a, 2001b).
After diaphragmatic breathing retraining of the 39-year-old woman with kidney transplant, This line graph demonstrates significant abdominal movement and much slower breathing (from Peper, Castillo, & Gibney, 2001).
Erik Peper
Christopher D. Gilbert
Richard Harvey
I-Mei Lin
Contributor Notes