THE EFFECTS OF EARLY PHYSIOTHERAPY INTERVENTION ON PATIENTS IN INTENSIVE CARE UNIT: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Abstract

Patients with a prolonged ICU stay may have several complications such as physical deconditioning and general body weakness which affect their overall quality of life. Physiotherapy intervention upon ICU admission may prevent such complications. Nevertheless there is no solid conclusion on the benefits of early physiotherapy intervention on the occurrence of intensive care unit-acquired weakness (ICU-AW) syndrome and physical performance. Hence, this study is aimed to systemically synthesize the evidence of early physiotherapy intervention in decreasing the occurrence of (ICU-AW) syndrome and improving physical performance in ICU patients. A systematic literature search was conducted in PubMed, Scopus, The Cochrane Library, and ScienceDirect databases. All relevant articles published in English between 2010 to 2022 were selected. The risk of bias assessment of the selected articles was performed using The McMaster Quantitative Critical Appraisal Tool (MQCAT). A narrative synthesis was employed to describe the findings. After a thorough screening, four articles met the eligible criteria and were included in this systematic review for further analysis. The methodological quality of the selected articles was found to be satisfactory. The review revealed that positive outcomes of early physiotherapy intervention on ICU-AW were reported in three studies. Yet, only one study reported positive outcome of early physiotherapy intervention on physical function outcome. This systematic review provide insight on the effects of early physiotherapy intervention on the incidence of ICU-AW as well as physical function that will inform the healthcare practitioners and future researchers.