USE of a mobile patient lift, combined with a rehabilitation protocol, reduced the time to stand in ventilated patients in the intensive care unit (ICU), compared to the protocol alone. “We anticipate that proactive early mobilisation, with the assistance of mobile patient lifts, will play a pivotal role in preventing post-intensive care syndrome,” stated Ginga Suzuki, Critical Care Center, Toho University Omori Medical Center, Tokyo, Japan.
This single-centre, open-label, randomised controlled trial included 80 patients expected to receive at least 48 hours of mechanical ventilation in the ICU. It aimed to determine if early mobilisation was promoted by the mobile patient lift. In total, 41 patients received only the rehabilitation protocol (control group), and 39 received the protocol plus a mobile patient lift to aid in sitting, standing, transfers, and walking (intervention group). The majority of patients in the intervention group (87.2%) did use the lift.
Results showed that the median time to stand in the intervention group was 1 day, compared to 3 days in the control group. Furthermore, the ICU Mobility Scale score and Functional Status Scores for the ICU (FFS-ICU) were higher in the intervention group than the control group at ICU discharge. Researchers further noted that mean Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score at first standing was significantly higher in the intervention group compared to the control group. The Barthel Index scores and median Medical Research Council (MRC) scores, however, which evaluate the ability to complete activities of daily living, and muscle strength, respectively, were similar in both groups.
In terms of secondary outcomes, including median mobilisation preparation times, median mobilisation clean-up times, median mobilisation times, delirium presence, median delirium duration, median ICU stay duration, mean 28-day ventilator-free days, ICU mortality, and hospital mortality, the team noted comparable findings.
Suzuki concluded: “To draw conclusive evidence for the advantages of early mobilisation, further studies should accumulate supportive data.”
