BALTIMORE, Oct 29, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- A U.S. doctor says the whole idea
of bed rest as something beneficial to recuperation is being turned on its head.
Dr. Robert Stevens of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore
says it is now recognized that being immobilized in the intensive care unit
significantly worsens muscle weakness.
"Patients who develop muscle weakness while they're critically ill do much
worse," Stevens says in a statement. "They have higher mortality, their stay in
the ICU is prolonged. They incur serious costs. Some of these patients in the
long run remain weak and are unable to resume physical activities as before."
Critical care units, Stevens says, are slowly moving in the direction of getting
patients moving as soon as possible -- including cycling in bed, standing,
sitting in chairs and even walking while still on respirators.
Stevens is part of an international interdisciplinary research group that met in
Brussels in March to develop a framework for uniformly classifying ICU-acquired
muscle-wasting disorders -- including intensive care unit-acquired weakness,
critical illness polyneuropathy, critical illness neuromyopathy and critical
illness myopathy.
The classification scheme has been proposed in Critical Care Medicine.
URL: www.upi.com
Copyright 2009 by United Press International