Transition and future prospects of physical therapy for patients in the ICU

Abstract

Physical therapy in the ICU for patients with acute respiratory failure during ventilatory management or in the perioperative period. Used to focus on chest physiotherapy the importance of early mobilization and exercise therapy has been emphasized since the late 2000s. Early rehabilitation in the ICU in Japan has often been performed empirically before, but, the standard physical therapy was proposed by Evidence based expert consensus for early rehabilitation in the intensive care unit in 2017. In 2018, the Japanese national health insurance system introduced a financial incentive scheme to promote early mobilization and rehabilitation in ICUs. In the future, there is an urgent need to verify the efficacy of physical therapy for each disease and to accumulate evidence on the efficacy of physical therapy for elderly patients in ICUs.