It’s BEEn quite a while since this pandemic hit us. The world that we knew fell apart right in front of our eyes. Even though people all around the world are taking a different approach towards it, at the end of the day it burns to the fact that it is a health care issue. It would not be an understatement to say that health care workers are the real heroes of this pandemic. From the simplest things like making admissions in the hospitals to the most complex stuff like making sure your lung functions properly was flawlessly carried out by various health care professionals. Me being a physiotherapist I take immense pride in being in the health care sector. More than anything the fact that I had the opportunity to impact a few lives positively during this pandemic is something that I will cherish forever.
It is very evident that in the beginning stages when Covid-19 gradually crawled into the country, physiotherapists had no part to play. It was just the doctors, nurses, and a few other paramedical workers. Only in the later stages, when people started to recognize the impacts that it created the health care experts recognized the need for physiotherapy and physiotherapists in covid-19 treatment. Here is the role that a physiotherapist can play in the treatment of covid-19.
Conventional Chest Physiotherapy
Conventional chest physiotherapy given by physiotherapists can have a tremendous impact if the person is going through some early stages of breathing difficulties. Physiotherapists can play a vital role in pulmonary assessments especially during orotracheal intubation and oxygen supplementation. These patients should be candidates for non-invasive ventilation or high flow oxygen administration. But if the patient and the condition reach an acute stage, there is no solid evidence that conventional chest physiotherapy can be of any help.
Exercise And Early Mobilization
One of the most common effects of Covid-19 and its treatment is debilitated physical condition. It is mainly due to prolonged mechanical ventilation and immobilization. Patients who are hospitalized irrespective of the intensity of the disease have to spend weeks in isolation. There is a significant decrease in their regular activity and are hence prone to a reduction in their muscle strength and cardiorespiratory capacity. Taking the patient’s intensity of the infection int0 consideration they should be subjected to the appropriate levels of exercise. Light intensity exercises would always be a safe bet. The statistics say that patients who went into early mobilization showed a reduction in the delirium of mechanical ventilation. Hence early mobilization is recommended. Few critical entities like neuromuscular stimulation, therapeutic exercises, and early verticalization must be included.
Oxygen Therapy
Among adults with Covid-19, the prevalence of hypoxic respiratory failure is 19%. It’s obvious that oxygen therapy is mandatory. For people with severe pulmonary dysfunction oxygen therapy is a major treatment intervention. For adults with covid-19, if the peripheral oxygen supply is less than 93%, supplementary oxygen must be started. Mechanical ventilation is necessary in case of respiratory failure. Once the patient is out of artificial supply of oxygen, the patient can be subjected to mild physiotherapy exercises to regulate air circulation.
To conclude With….
It's a billion-dollar question “when will this pandemic end completely?” for which none of us knows the answer. We have come to a point where we have embraced the new normal. But as a health care professional, there is one assurance that I can provide from my end and also on behalf of everyone in BEE Health Studio. No matter what, we will always be here to render our services of unparalleled quality to contribute to better and healthier living.
December 30, 2021
