Post Intensive Care Rehabilitation

Abstract

Millions of patients develop critical conditions that require ICU admission each year. ICU survivors, particularly those who require prolonged mechanical ventilation, experience high mortality. Compromises in physical, psychological, and/or cognitive function are common. Post Intensive Care Syndrome (PICS) is a condition defined as “new or worsening impairment in physical, cognitive, or mental health status arising after critical illness and persisting beyond discharge from the acute care setting. Despite a greater prevalence of pre-existing co-morbidities in survivors, survival rates for critically ill patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) have improved in recent years. Consequently, there is an increasing frequency of patients reporting both physical and psychological impairment. Extensive data have shown that cardiac rehabilitation improves outcomes; reduces the risk of CVD events over the ensuing year; improves exercise performance; enhances medication compliance; reduces symptoms such as angina, dyspnea, and fatigue; and reduces all-cause mortality by 25%.