Authors:
- Martina Maričić Ljubas, Clinical Hospital Center Rijeka, Clinic for Anesthesiology, Intensive Care Medicine and Pain Management, Clinical Hospital Center Rijeka, Clinic for Radiology and Oncology, Day Hospital
- Iva Marincel Antolović, Clinical Hospital Center Rijeka, Clinic for Anesthesiology, Intensive Care Medicine and Pain Management
- Mario Dugonjić, Clinical Hospital Center Rijeka, Clinic for Anesthesiology, Intensive Care Medicine and Pain Management, Faculty of Health Studies, University of Rijeka, Department of Nursing
- Stella Gašparuš, University of Rijeka, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine
Article type:
Original Scientific Paper
Abstract:
Patients with severe COVID-19 disease are cared for and treated in the COVID Intensive Care Unit. In addition to doctors and nurses, an indispensable part of the team is the physiotherapist. Clinical Hospital Center Rijeka was the first in Croatia to include physiotherapists as the key to the rehabilitation of COVID-19 patients with the aim of early rehabilitation and prevention of respiratory complications. The aim of this study was to present the role and interventions of physiotherapists in the Intensive Care Unit, to examine which respiratory support was used more often, and how many patients were treated with noninvasive mechanical ventilation and how many with invasive mechanical ventilation, on which day patients were verticalized, and with what type of respiratory support they were discharged from the COVID Intensive Care Unit. The study was conducted on a sample of 111 patients treated in the COVID Intensive Care Unit from March 28, 2020 to March 28, 2021. The most commonly used respiratory support after admission was invasive mechanical ventilation (62%), and patients were eligible for extubation after 5 days on invasive mechanical ventilation on average. The most common respiratory support used after extubation is an oxygen tank mask (42%). Of 111 patients included in this study, 30% of patients met the conditions for verticalization, and were verticalized 24 h after separation from invasive mechanical ventilation. For patients with severe COVID-19 disease, initial assessment, individual patient approach, and teamwork are important. Respiratory rehabilitation helps to acquire the conditions to deescalate respiratory support, reduces the symptoms of COVID-19 disease and enables verticalization.
Keywords:
COVID-19, respiratory support, respiratory rehabilitation, verticalization