I thought this was a great picture in JAMA recently. It shows a patient on mechanical ventilation via ET tube and with an arterial line walking in the ICU. Admittedly the patient has a lot of help; there is at least one nurse and one respiratory technician. However, this was not even considered possible in the past for a laundry list of reasons, including large ventilators and non-portable sensor equipment. Despite evidence that bed rest quickly leads to muscle mass depletion even in healthy patients, frequently the plan is bedrest with sedation until the patient is weaned from the ventilator.
The article with the picture reviews the past literature and talks about efforts to mobilize patients early to get them out of the ICU faster. It’s a great read.
Tags: endotracheal · hopkins · icu · jamaNo Comments
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