Factors Contributing to Acquired Muscle Weakness Among Critical Ill Patients

Abstract

Intensive Care Unit Acquired Muscle Weakness (ICU-AW) is one of the most important complications occurs in the ICU. It is a multifactorial syndrome characterized by generalized muscle weakness. Critical Care Nurses (CCNs) have an important role in the prevention of ICU-AW through increase mobility and applying of range of motion (ROM) exercise. Aim: This study aimed to assess factors contributing to acquired muscle weakness among critical ill patients. Design: A descriptive explorative design was utilized for the conduction of this study. Setting: the study was carried out in intensive care units (ICUs) of Beni–Suef University Hospital (general, chest and internal medicine ICU). Study subject: A Purposive sample of seventy five patients admitted to the previous mentioned setting. Tools of data collection were consisted of patient assessment tool, muscle strength scale /medical research council (MRC) and indicators to incidence of ICU-AW, and factors contributing to ICU-AW assessment tool. Results: revealed that, more than half of studied patients had ICU-AW, the majority of studied patients who had muscle weakness were older than the Non ICUAW patients. Application of positioning and range of motion exercises were not done in the ICU-AW patients. Administration of corticosteroid and incidence of malnutrition was higher in the ICU-AW patients than the Non ICU-AW patients. There were no statistically significant relation between incidence of ICU-AW and gender, admission medical diagnosis, administration of parenteral nutrition and application of positioning, and walking exercises. Conclusion: More than half of studied patients developed ICU-AW. The contributing factors of ICU-AW are patient age, WBCs level, no applying range of motion and chair sitting exercise to ICU patients, administration of corticosteroid and malnutrition. Recommendations: Further research is recommended to study extensively the effect of nutritional status on incidence of ICU-AW. Also, examine the incidence of ICU-AW in sedated and unconscious patients. Keywords: Intensive Care Unit, Acquired Muscle Weakness, Critical Care Unit.