We, as in my daughters (and my nephew) use both the vest and acapella. My nephew, who is almost 16, feels that the acapella works at 70% as well as the vest for him. He has A LOT of lung issues! My daughters do the acapella in the morning, and the vest in the evening (on a normal basis). If there are signs of somthing starting, we up the vest treatments. What my girls don't like about the vest is that sometimes they get sweaty and itchy. I tend to notice this more of a problem when they are overly sleepy, so it can usually be 'fixed' by doing it a bit earlier before anyone is that tired. But I do notice that they cough up more junk with the acapella than they do the vest. I am so amazed that a little bit of plastic can do so much! It is nice that we can take it with us easily and can be used any where. It really has given us more flexibilty than before. The only complaint the girls have about the acapella is that it makes their mouths a little sore, from the vibration I guess.
The girls CF doctor said that there are no studies that say one is superior than the other. And anything that they will be compliant with is what works best. We like to have the variety. And when we go on vacation next month, the vest not be traveling with us! I will take the acapellas and do CPT by hand.
Oh, yeah, we got the acapellas at no cost through our CF clinic just in the past three months<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">