SynthesisBMJ open2019
Does enhanced physical rehabilitation following intensive care unit discharge improve outcomes in patients who received mechanical ventilation? A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in BMJ open, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 2 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 30 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Is a Physiotherapy-led Follow-up Programme Feasible in Adult Critical Illness Survivors After Discharge Home: A Single-center Trial
Health-related Quality of Life (HRQOL) and Physical Performance in Individuals After COVID-19 Induced Hospitalisation and the Impact of a Standard Care Follow-up Program: a Longitudinal Observational Cohort Study
Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Effectiveness of targeted post-acute interventions and follow-up services for sepsis survivors: a systematic review.Critical care (London, England) · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Rehabilitation to enable recovery from COVID-19: a rapid systematic review.Physiotherapy · 2021Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Home-Based Combined Activity and Cognitive Intervention for Post-Intensive Care Syndrome: A Pilot Randomised Controlled Trial.Nursing in critical care · 2026Trial
- Trial
- Article
- Top ten tips to manage patients after acute kidney injury.Clinical kidney journal · 2026Review
- Muscle Dysfunction and Physical Recovery After Critical Illness.Journal of intensive care medicine · 2026Review
- Outcomes after specialized rehabilitation for patients with critical COVID-19 and prolonged intensive care unit stays.European clinical respiratory journal · 2026Article
- Community-Based Rehabilitation and Patient-Centered Outcomes in Survivors of Critical COVID-19 Attending an Intensive Care Recovery Clinic.Archives of rehabilitation research and clinical translation · 2025Article
- Exploring Peripheral and Respiratory Muscle Weakness and Functional Impairments in ICU Patients: Insights From a Resource-Constrained Setting.Critical care explorations · 2025Observational
- Article
- The impact of mechanical ventilation on long-term survival influences definitions of persistent critical illness.Critical care science · 2025Article
- Review
- Persistent Fatigue, Weakness, and Aberrant Muscle Mitochondria in Survivors of Critical COVID-19.Critical care explorations · 2024Observational
- Post-ICU Care: Why, What, When and How? ISCCM Position Statement.Indian journal of critical care medicine : peer-reviewed, official publication of Indian Society of Critical Care Medicine · 2024Article
- Feasibility and Inter-rater Reliability of the Japanese Version of the Intensive Care Unit Mobility Scale.Cureus · 2024Article
- From bedside to recovery: exercise therapy for prevention of post-intensive care syndrome.Journal of intensive care · 2024Review
- Latent Trajectories of Activities of Daily Living Disability and Associated Factors Among Adults with Post-Intensive Care Syndrome One Week After ICU Discharge.Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveWe aimed to determine whether enhanced physical rehabilitation following intensive care unit (ICU) discharge improves activities-of-daily-living function, quality of life (QOL) and mortality among patients who received mechanical ventilation in the ICU.
designSystematic review and meta-analysis using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach. DATA SOURCES: MEDLINE, Embase, CENTRAL, PEDro and WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform searched through January 2019. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR SELECTING STUDIES: We included randomised controlled trials assessing the effect of post-ICU rehabilitation designed to either commence earlier and/or be more intensive than the protocol employed in the control group. Only adults who received mechanical ventilation for >24 hours were included. DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: Two independent reviewers extracted data and assessed risk of bias. Standard mean differences (SMDs) with 95% CIs were calculated for QOL, and pooled risk ratios (RRs) with 95% CIs are provided for mortality. We assessed heterogeneity based on I² and the certainty of evidence based on the GRADE approach.
resultsTen trials (enrolling 1110 patients) compared physical rehabilitation with usual care or no intervention after ICU discharge. Regarding QOL, the SMD (95% CI) between the intervention and control groups for the physical and mental component summary scores was 0.06 (-0.12 to 0.24) and -0.04 (-0.20 to 0.11), respectively. Rehabilitation did not significantly decrease long-term mortality (RR 1.05, 95% CI 0.66 to 1.66). The analysed trials did not report activities-of-daily-living data. The certainty of the evidence for QOL and mortality was moderate.
conclusionsEnhanced physical rehabilitation following ICU discharge may make little or no difference to QOL or mortality among patients who received mechanical ventilation in the ICU. Given the wide CIs, further studies are needed to confirm the efficacy of intensive post-ICU rehabilitation in selected populations. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42017080532.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.