Electrical Muscle Stimulation and Bicycling Combined to Early Standard Rehabilitation in the ICU

Early mobilization (from the first day if possible), first passive and then passive and active, is recommended for critically ill patients in whom it reduces the duration of mechanical ventilation, the length of hospital stay, improves functional status, muscle strength and quality of life after hospital discharge. The early addition of leg bicycling on a cyclo-ergometer is now part of common practice in the ICU. It can preserve or improve muscle strength and further increase the beneficial effects of early mobilization. Electrical muscle stimulation of the quadriceps, is practiced in some intensive care units, and it should, in theory, also through an improvement of muscle strength, increase the beneficial effects of early mobilization. We hypothesized that early quadriceps electrical stimulation and early work on a cyclo-ergometer associated with a standard protocol of early passive/active mobilization in the ICU may improve muscle function and reduce the duration of mechanical ventilation, length of stay, the number of readmissions and improve the quality of life in the mid term in critically ill patients, as compared to a conventional protocol of early passive/active mobilization.