Physiotherapy for adult patients with critical illness: recommendations of the European Respiratory Society and European Society of Intensive Care Medicine Task Force on Physiotherapy for Critically Ill Patients

Gosselink R., Bott J., Johnson M., Dean E., Nava S., Norrenberg M., Schönhofer B., Stiller K., van der Leur H., Vincent J.L

This ESICM statement reviews and discusses the available literature on the effectiveness of physiotherapy for acute and chronic critically ill adult patients. Evidenced based targets for deconditioning, impaired airway clearance, atelectasis, intubation avoidance and weaning failure were identified and where possible recommendations made for practice.

Clinical relevance: an up to date evidenced based recommendation for physiotherapy practice in ICU.

Intensive Care Medicine: Published online 19 February 2008 ahead of print

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