Six-Week Hospital-Based Pulmonary Rehabilitation in Covid Pneumonia ICU Survivors: Experience from a Tertiary Care Center in Central India

Overview

Journal Turk Thorac J

Publisher Aves

Specialty Pulmonary Medicine

Date 2022 Apr 11

PMID 35404239

Authors

Alkesh Kumar Khurana

Aqeel Hussain

Abhishek Goyal

Sunaina Tejpal Karna

Saurabh Saigal

Raj Krishnan Soman

Mamta Verma

Sagar Khadanga

Gaurav Sahu

Brijendra Singh

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Objective: There is very limited data on the usefulness of pulmonary rehabilitation in patients with coronavirus pneumonia who have survived intensive care unit care. The primary aim was to explore the feasibility of conducting a pulmonary rehabilitation program in patients with coronavirus disease-19 pneumonia surviving intensive care. The secondary aim was to study the impact of a hospital-based 6-week pulmonary rehabilitation program on exercise capacity, quality of life, and psychological parameters in these patients. This study was conducted at the Center for Pulmonary Rehabilitation, Department of Pulmonary Medicine of the institute.

Material And Methods: A total of 27 patients were enrolled. Among them, 14 patients who completed the desired 12 sessions over 6 weeks constituted the pulmonary rehabilitation group and 13 patients who either did not consent or defaulted within the first 2 weeks were considered as controls. Both groups had assessments at 0 and 6 weeks that included a 6-Minute Walk Test, Incremental Shuttle Walk Test, mMRC Dyspnea Scale, Baseline Dyspnea Index, and Transitional Dyspnea Index, Saint George's Respiratory Questionnaire score, and Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale-21 score.

Results: Significant improvement in dyspnea by mMRC (P = .01) and exercise capacity as measured by 6-Minute Walk Test (P <.001) and Incremental Shuttle Walk Test (P = .025) was seen in the pulmonary rehabilitation group as compared to the control group. There was no significant improvement in quality of life and psychological parameters (Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale 21 score) after 6 weeks of pulmonary rehabilitation program as measured in our study.

Conclusion: Pulmonary rehabilitation is feasible and appears promising in coronavirus disease acute respiratory distress syndrome survivors. However, data from other centers and a larger number of patients are required to imbibe conclusive results.

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