Long-term complications of prone position ventilation with relevance for acute and postacute rehabilitation: a systematic review of the literature.

INTRODUCTION: Prone positioning ventilation (PPV) is an effective treatment for patients with moderate to severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Despite the benefits of PPV, different kinds of short and long-term consequences have been noted. This review summarizes long-term complications of PPV that impact treatment strategies and outcomes in acute and postacute rehabilitation. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: PubMed/Medline, Cochrane Library, Cochrane COVID-19 Study Register databases and the Google Scholar search engine were systematically searched for studies investigating long-term complications of PPV. The final search date for all sources/databases was January 31, 2022. For our methodological appraisal, we conducted a systematic review of articles without any restrictions on types of articles or publication dates. Only articles published in English and available as full texts were eligible for inclusion. After the screening process, data of interest were extracted from eligible sources: PPV sequelae and conclusions (i.e. possible effects on the course of rehabilitation and therapy strategies). EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: A total of 59 studies are included in this review. Long-term consequences are mainly pressure ulcers and nerve lesions that exist after discharge from the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Publications rarely recommend treatment strategies for long-term complications after PPV. Due to the quality of the included studies, no robust conclusions as to effective strategies can be drawn. CONCLUSIONS: Further high-quality research is required, considering the different long-term complications after PPV and their impact on rehabilitation in order to draw conclusions about viable physical therapies. Crucially, however, prone positioning (PP) sequelae pose new challenges to physicians and therapists in acute and postacute rehabilitation medicine as well as follow-up care.

[Acute rehabilitation after COVID-19 infection : A selected case series]. / Akutrehabilitation nach COVID­19­Infektion : Eine ausgewählte Fallserie.

BACKGROUND: While the first wave of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic mainly affected the old, currently younger patients also become infected and hospitalized. After severe and critical COVID-19 infections and also after surviving acute phase symptoms, these patients often show symptoms (e.g. exertional dyspnea), organ damage (e.g. of the lungs, the cardiovascular system) as well as psychological impairments. OBJECTIVE: The severe courses after critical cases of COVID-19 represent challenges for rehabilitation and require more than ever rehabilitative treatment approaches even in acute hospitals. METHODS: This article presents a selected case series of patients with a typical constellation of pre-existing conditions due to immunosuppression plus critical course of COVID-19 and indications for acute rehabilitation. RESULTS: This case series depicts the long duration of hospitalization with high numbers of hours on ventilation in the intensive care unit. At the time of transfer to acute rehabilitation these patients are immobile and have severe limitations in all activities of daily life, so that an inpatient rehabilitation in an acute hospital is indicated and the usual means of continuation of rehabilitation were not feasible. The sequelae of lying prone and complications, such as exertional desaturation in the early stage of convalescence are detected in the acute phase of early rehabilitation. CONCLUSION: After severe COVID-19 infections new challenges for rehabilitation are to be expected, so that rehabilitative treatment approaches with an interdisciplinary early rehabilitation in an acute hospital are urgently needed. Finally, acute rehabilitation not only enables a seamless treatment chain for these patients but also the flow of patients from the intensive care unit to ensure the functioning of local infrastructures.

[Interdisciplinary Acute Medical Rehabilitation after Sepsis - A Retrospective Analysis]. / Fachübergreifende Frührehabilitation nach Sepsis ­ Eine retrospektive Analyse .

BACKGROUND: Surviving sepsis may have consequences of high impact for the patients' further life regarding functioning in mobility and activities of daily living, among other fields. Patients consecutively have a great need of rehabilitation interventions beginning with early mobilization in the Intensive Care Unit ICU. Acute medical rehabilitation is a concept of early rehabilitation still in the acute care hospital, normally beginning after a direct transferal from the ICU. Its aim is to improve the patients' functioning in mobility and activities of daily living (ADL) to enable further post-acute rehabilitation interventions. METHODS: In this retrospective analysis a sample of patients who received acute medical rehabilitation after surviving a sepsis or severe sepsis was followed. The study targeted the question if basic functions of mobility and ADL could be improved by acute medical rehabilitation. Furthermore, the need for aid supply was evaluated, as well as the type of discharge or transferal after acute care. RESULTS: The increase of mobility and ADL capability before and after acute medical rehabilitation was highly significant (p<0.001 each) and showed very large effect sizes (d=1.3, 1.4 respectively). Aid supply was organized for 92% of patients. A majority of patients could receive consecutive post-acute rehabilitation after re-gaining function. DISCUSSION: The data shows the enormous gain in functioning that can be reached with an acute medical rehabilitation intervention after ICU treatment of sepsis.

Introduction of the Charité Mobility Index (CHARMI) - A Novel Clinical Mobility Assessment for Acute Care Rehabilitation.

INTRODUCTION: Mobility is an essential part of a person's functioning and independence. It encompasses locomotive functions, but also the more basic functions of positioning and transferring. Despite the availability of several mobility-related assessment instruments to date, there is a need for assessment instruments with the specific capability to display the full range of mobilisation. Our aim was to develop and validate a scoring instrument with hierarchical composition where every score value stands for a defined mobility level. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: A previously developed and validated pilot instrument was applied to assess patients (n = 113) admitted to an acute rehabilitation programme. Mobility was assessed during admission, subsequently at weekly intervals and at discharge to acquire a detailed status of mobility at multiple time points and individual mobilisation profiles over time. The scoring instrument was then remodelled based on clinical criteria to establish an easy-to-use scoring system with hierarchical composition. Psychometric properties were calculated using an independent sample of 87 consecutive patients. RESULTS: Content validity could be affirmed. The psychometric tests demonstrated excellent convergent validity with the three mobility items of the Barthel Index (r = 0.93), despite an adequately lower correlation with the whole Barthel Index (r = 0.63). Adequate floor and ceiling effects (20%) and a large responsiveness to change (ǀdǀ = 1.7, p < 0.001) between admission and discharge values were demonstrated. Inter-rater reliability was excellent (κ = 0.88). CONCLUSIONS: The Charité Mobility Index (CHARMI) is a promising, easy-to-use hierarchical scoring instrument assessing the full individual spectrum from immobility to unlimited mobility, including positioning, transfer and locomotion items. It allows for monitoring of mobilisation.