CASE REPORT   Free access

European Journal of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine 2020 December;56(6):858-61

DOI: 10.23736/S1973-9087.20.06406-0

Copyright © 2020 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Early rehabilitation in a critically ill inpatient with COVID-19

Jaewon BEOM ¹, Jongtak JUNG ², In-Chang HWANG ², Young-Jae CHO ², Eu S. KIM ², Hong B. KIM ², Jae-Young LIM ¹, Kyoung-Ho SONG ² ✉

¹ Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam, South Korea; ² Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam, South Korea

BACKGROUND: Survivors of critical coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) suffer from severe physical functional disability. Recent reports from several countries suggest that rehabilitative intervention is needed to improve physical functional decline in the challenging situation of COVID-19.
CASE REPORT: A 58-year-old woman, previously without gait difficulty, was diagnosed with COVID-19 requiring endotracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation. She also developed stress-induced cardiomyopathy. After management in intensive care unit for 15 days, she could not sit on a bed without back support. After receiving short-term inpatient rehabilitation therapy, lower limb muscle strength, balance function, and gait speed had rapidly and significantly improved at the time of hospital discharge and at 1-month follow-up.
CLINICAL REHABILITATION IMPACT: As COVID-19 tends to progress rapidly in the acute phase, early rehabilitation is necessary, despite challenges to its implementation. Feasible inpatient rehabilitation for patients with critical COVID-19 will pave the way to improve physical functional disability.

KEY WORDS: Rehabilitation; Recovery of function; Critical illness; COVID-19; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2