When is it safe to exercise mechanically ventilated …

Boyd, J., et al. (2018). "When is it safe to exercise mechanically ventilated patients in the intensive care unit? An evaluation of consensus recommendations in a cardiothoracic setting." Heart & Lung 47(2): 81-86.

Rationale: Consensus recommendations have been developed to guide exercise rehabilitation of mechanically ventilated patients in the intensive care unit. Objective: This study aimed to investigate the safety of exercise rehabilitation of mechanically ventilated patients and evaluate the consensus recommendations. Methods: This was a prospective, single-centre, cohort study conducted in a specialist cardiothoracic intensive care unit of a tertiary, university affiliated hospital in Australia. Results: 91 mechanically ventilated participants; 54 (59.3%) male; mean age of 56.52 (16.3) years; were studied with 809 occasions of service recorded. Ten (0.0182%) minor adverse events were recorded, with only one adverse event occurring when a patient was receiving moderate level of vasoactive support. Conclusions: The consensus recommendations are a useful tool in guiding safe exercise rehabilitation of mechanically ventilated patients. Our findings suggest that there is further scope to safely commence exercise rehabilitation in patients receiving vasoactive support. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.