Efficacy and Safety of a Multicomponent Physical Therapy Program in Mechanically Ventilated Patient With Sepsis

Despite of a remarkable decrease in overall mortality has been achieved following the International Guidelines for Management of Sepsis and Septic Shock since 2004,the short-and long-term outcomes remain poor in critically ill sepsis patients who had experienced prolonged ventilation in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). The reason could be due to some subsequent complications developed in the ICU rather than original disease, e.g., ICU-acquired weakness (ICUAW), delirium, diaphragmatic dysfunction (DD) and acute gastrointestinal (GI) injury, which are still not fully recognized or dealt with in a majority of ICU settings across China. This study is aimed to examine whether a multi-component physical therapy (PT) program against these lethal ICU-related complications could reduce ICU 28-day mortality, improve independent functional status and 1-year survival in this subset of patients.