SynthesisCritical care (London, England)2026
Neuromuscular electrical stimulation for early rehabilitation in critically ill patients: a systematic review of applied protocols.
Synthesis in Critical care (London, England), 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 2 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Neuromuscular electrical stimulation for early rehabilitation in critically ill patients: a systematic review of applied protocols.Critical care (London, England) · 2026Pooled it
- Comparative effectiveness of non-pharmacological interventions on health-related quality of life in ICU patients: a network meta-analysis.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Methodological Approaches for Ultrasound Assessment of Peripheral and Abdominal Muscle Thickness in Intensive Care: A Scoping Review and Proposed Reporting Framework.Physiotherapy research international : the journal for researchers and clinicians in physical therapy · 2026Article
- Peripheral muscle ultrasound in the ICU: current evidence, limitations, and future directions.Intensive care medicine · 2026Article
- Changes in rectus femoris diameter: a cooperation-independent assessment method for ICU-acquired weakness.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
13 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionNeuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) is increasingly used to mitigate negative consequences of bed rest in critically ill patients, especially those unable to actively participate in mobilization. However, existing studies have shown inconsistent outcomes, potentially due to heterogeneous NMES protocols. This systematic review aimed to identify and characterize the NMES protocols applied in this context.
methodsA systematic literature search was conducted in MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, Pedro, and CINAHL up to August 18, 2025. Studies were selected based on predefined PICOS criteria, focusing on adult intensive care unit (ICU) patients receiving NMES for early rehabilitation. Only randomized controlled trials and observational studies were included. Data on protocol parameters and patient characteristics were extracted and descriptively analyzed.
results44 studies with a total of 2,553 patients were included, applying 50 different NMES protocols. Stimulation predominantly targeted lower limb muscles using biphasic rectangular waveforms. Pulse duration ranged from 250–1,400 µs, frequencies from 20–121 Hz, and intensities from 2–250 mA or 20–250 V. Considerable heterogeneity was observed in stimulation settings, reporting methods, and protocol transparency.
conclusionThe reviewed studies highlight the lack of standardization in NMES protocols for ICU patients. Variability in stimulation parameters hinders comparability and clinical translation. Future research should aim to harmonize protocols respectively their reporting to strengthen the comparability of clinical studies and their outcomes.
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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.