Effect of Early Rehabilitation Activity Time on Critically Ill Patients with Intensive Care Unit-acquired Weakness: A Japanese Retrospective Multicenter Study

Objective: This study examined the risk factors in the early rehabilitation therapy of critically ill patients with weakness acquired in an intensive care unit and the impact of this therapy on walking independence after discharge from the hospital.

Method: Of the 764 consecutive patients transported to the study facilities by ambulance, newly admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU), and treated with rehabilitation during hospitalization, 88 were included in this study after eliminating those who met a detailed list of exclusion criteria. To retrospectively examine the rate of walking independence and the effect of differing durations of rehabilitation activity, the study patients were divided into two groups: those with ICU-acquired weakness (AW) and those without ICU-acquired weakness (non-ICU-AW) on discharge from the ICU.

Results: Analysis using the Kaplan-Meier estimator revealed that the non-ICU-AW group needed a markedly shorter period to achieve walking independence. In terms of the rehabilitation activities performed in the ICU, both in-bed exercises and the total duration of rehabilitation activity were significantly shorter in the ICU-AW group than in the non-ICU-AW group.

Conclusion: The two groups were compared, and the amount of daily activity time significantly influenced the quality of patient outcome.