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Abstract
Post-intensive care syndrome is an increasingly recognized complication of critical illness, with patients reporting new problems in physical, mental health and/or psychosocial, and cognitive function for months to years after their acute illness. As a way of diagnosing and treating post–intensive care syndrome, many centers around the world have established ICU recovery clinics, which take a multidisciplinary approach to care after the ICU. Dyspnea and pulmonary dysfunction are frequently encountered concerns in the post-ICU population. Despite this, few ICU recovery clinics have described how respiratory therapists (RTs) can contribute to treating these symptoms. We reviewed the literature with regard to the roles of an RT in post-ICU follow-up, described our institutional experiences with having RTs as part of our ICU recovery clinics, and identified additional ways that RTs might contribute to a post-intensive care syndrome diagnosis and treatment. Although RTs can provide invaluable experience and contributions to an ICU recovery clinic, there are few articles in the published literature on the ways in which this can be accomplished. We, therefore, provide analogies to other multidisciplinary clinic models as well as our own experiences. Future studies should focus on examining the impact of respiratory therapy diagnostic testing and interventions in the ICU recovery clinic on both patient and provider outcomes.
- Respiratory therapy
- ICU Recovery
- ICU follow up clinic
- post-intensive care syndrome (PICS)
- ARDS
- mindfulness
Footnotes
- Correspondence: Amy L Bellinghausen MD, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, University of California San Diego, 9300 Campus Point Drive, Mail Code 7381, La Jolla, CA 92037. E-mail: amyb{at}health.ucsd.edu
See the Related Editorial on Page 1929
The authors have disclosed no conflicts of interest.
Supplementary material related to this paper is available at http://www.rcjournal.com.
Funding for the research time of Dr Bellinghausen was covered by a T32 institutional training grant (award HL134632).
- Copyright © 2021 by Daedalus Enterprises
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