“Even critically ill patients can do this”…Exercise method to reduce hospital stay?

A patient in recovery. Research results have shown that in-bed cycling therapy, one of the rehabilitation treatments for critically ill patients, can have good effects. (Photo = Getty Image Bank)

Recently, the medical community’s interest in intensive care unit patients has been increasing. Research results on treatment and management techniques for critically ill patients are frequently published. Research has shown that even patients admitted to the intensive care unit can improve their physical function and reduce the length of hospital stay if they exercise in bed (cycling). A research team at McMaster University in Canada said this was the result of analyzing data from 33 rehabilitation clinical trials (including approximately 3,300 patients) in 13 countries around the world.

According to the results of the study, critically ill patients who received cycling therapy in a special bed in the intensive care unit were able to shorten the length of stay in the intensive care unit by an average of 1 day and the overall hospital stay by an average of 1.5 days compared to intensive care patients who did not receive cycling therapy. In particular, it was analyzed that the physical function of critically ill patients who received cycling therapy improved significantly after discharge.

Until now, the conclusions of intensive care unit rehabilitation research have often been unclear. Dr. Heather O’Grady (rehabilitation science), lead author of the study, said, “However, riding a bicycle in a special bed as part of intensive care unit rehabilitation can reduce the length of stay in the intensive care unit and the entire hospital, is safe, and especially improves the patient’s physical function after discharge. “It’s getting a lot better,” he said.

According to the research team, side effects that occur after critically ill patients ride a special bicycle are very rare. Professor Michel Coe (rehabilitation science), the study’s corresponding author, said, “Side effects only occur in less than 1% of all patients. “The mortality rate of patients who received cycling therapy in the intensive care unit was also lower than that of patients who did not receive cycling therapy,” he said.

The results of this study (Leg Cycle Ergometry in Critically Ill Patients — An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis) were published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM Evidence).

Meanwhile, recent research results from Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard University Medical School in the U.S. show that if patients admitted to the intensive care unit brush their teeth diligently at least twice a day, they can leave the intensive care unit up to 2.85 days earlier than patients who do not. Additionally, it was revealed that the incidence of pneumonia caused by nosocomial infection was lowered by 0.67 times and the intensive care unit mortality rate was lowered by 0.81 times.

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Source: kormedi.com