Comments
According to a health expert who presented her study at the European Respiratory Society International Congress, coronavirus patients who demonstrated critical symptoms of the virus should start a pulmonary rehabilitation program — a supervised program that includes exercise training, health education, and breathing techniques for people — for better and faster recovery.
The study by Yara Al Chikhanie, a Ph.D. student at the Dieulefit Santé clinic for pulmonary rehabilitation, France, was published in the journal EurekAlert!.
She stated in her study that patients with severe Covid-19 can spend weeks in intensive care on ventilators. The lack of physical movement, on top of the severe infection and inflammation, leads to severe muscle loss.
She mentioned that the muscles used for breathing are also affected by Covid-19, which weakens the breathing capacity.
With the help of pulmonary rehabilitation, which involves physical exercises and advice on managing symptoms, including shortness of breath and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Covid-19 patients can recover fully.
Al Chikhanie took a walking test of 19 patients who had spent an average of three weeks in intensive care and two weeks in a pulmonary ward before being transferred to the Dieulefit Santé clinic for pulmonary rehabilitation.
She informed that most were still unable to walk when they arrived, and they spent an average of three weeks in rehabilitation. The walking test measured how far the patients could walk in six minutes.
In the beginning, they were able to walk an average of 16 per cent of the distance that, in theory, they should be able to walk normally if healthy. After three weeks of pulmonary rehabilitation, this increased to an average of 43 per cent, which was a significant gain but still a serious impairment.
Al Chikhanie said, “The most important finding was that patients who were admitted to pulmonary rehabilitation shortly after leaving intensive care, progressed faster than those who spent a longer period in the pulmonary ward where they remained inactive.”
She added, “The sooner rehabilitation started and the longer it lasted, the faster and better was the improvement in patients’ walking and breathing capacities and muscle gain. Patients who started rehabilitation in the week after coming off their ventilators progressed faster than those who were admitted after two weeks.”
Comments
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.