Advances in medicine mean that an increasing number of critically ill people, including those with severe pneumonia (lung infection), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (also known as emphysema or chronic bronchitis) or the "acute respiratory distress syndrome", survive admission to the hospital intensive care unit. Survivors report health problems such as breathlessness and weakness long after discharge. In a study monitoring over 800 patients discharged from an intensive care ward, over half required some form of caregiver assistance after 1-year.
Whilst on intensive care, patients usually require help to breathe from a ventilator machine and become immobilised. This leads to weak breathing muscles in three quarters of patients, as well as weak and wasted arm and leg muscles. Survivors struggle to regain their previous level of daily activity and function, limited by shortness of breath, muscle weakness and tiredness. It is recognised that people with chronic lung problems, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, face similar problems. In this condition, exercise based therapy has been shown to improve muscle strength, walking ability, shortness of breath, and importantly quality of life.
Given these experiences, a new trial will evaluate a novel programme of exercise-based rehabilitation training in patients discharged from intensive care. The programme will last for 8-weeks and will use exercises designed to correct the breathing and limb muscle weakness, as well as education to help patients cope more effectively. The programme will begin as soon as possible following discharge from hospital and will be conducted on a mostly outpatient basis until the course is completed. By speeding the recovery of strength and activity, it is anticipated that quality of life will be improved, which this trial will attempt to measure.
The rehabilitation programme will include aerobic cardiovascular, and upper and lower limb strengthening exercises, in addition to relevant education sessions.
