Introduction:

Asthma is the most common inflammatory disorder of the lower respiratory tract during childhood. The action of physiotherapy in this condition is to reduce the frequency of episodes and the intensity of symptoms.

Objective:

Analyze the effects of the different physiotherapy techniques used in asthmatic patients between 0 and 18 years old, in terms of quality of life, lung function and symptoms reduction.

Methods:

A bibliographic search was conducted during January 2021 in Medline, Pubmed, Scopus, Web of Science, PEDro and Cinahl. In all of them, "asthma" was used as a search term. Medline and Pubmed used the term "physical therapy modalities", while the others used "physical therapy".

Analysis and integration of information:

The initial search included 110 results with 7 valid articles after applying the eligibility criteria. The selected studies develop different physiotherapy interventions in children and adolescents with asthma to treat this disease. It was found great heterogeneity in the treatments used and breathing exercises were the most used technique.

Conclusions:

Physiotherapy procedures produce positive effects on asthma control in asthmatic patients between 0 and 18 years. Combining breathing exercises with other techniques such as sophrology or saline therapy in the treatment of this condition has good results. Breathing exercises improve respiratory muscle capacity, which is decreased in these patients.

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