Exercise In ICU Speeds Recovery

KYW's Medical Reports Sponsored By Independence Blue Cross

By Dr. Brian McDonough, Medical Editor

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Most of us in medicine don't think of the Intensive Care Unit as a place for patients to get exercise. After all if patients are in the ICU, they are in serious shape. But, researchers have written in The Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation that exercise in the Intensive Care Unit can actually have a good effect.

They discovered that by reducing sedative use in the Intensive Care Unit, they were able to introduce mild exercise to patients, thereby speeding up recovery by two to three days. This allowed the Intensive Care Unit under study to treat 20% more patients.

Exercise ranged from walking in corridors to using a special device to peddle in bed.

The report came out of John Hopkins and most ICUs are not built for this but the concept is gaining momentum.