Safety profile and feasibility of early physical therapy and mobility for critically ill patients in the medical intensive care unit: Beginning experiences in Korea

Purpose: To evaluate risk factors for potential safety events during mobility physical therapy sessions in the medical intensive care unit. Methods: The safety profiles and potential risk factors of 99 patients who were admitted to the medical intensive care unit of a single teaching hospital in Korea between May 1 and December 31, 2013, were retrospectively evaluated. Results: A total of 26 potential safety events (5.0%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 3.4%-7.3%) during 520 mobilization sessions were observed in 17 (17.2%; 95% CI, 10.6%-26.4%) of 99 patients. The common potential safety events were as follows in order of frequency: 11 events of tachypnea or bradypnea (2.1%; 95% CI, 1.1%-3.9%), 6 events of desaturation (1.2 %; 95% CI, 0.5%-2.6%), 4 events of tachypnea or bradycardia (0.8%; 95% CI, 0.3%-2.1%), 4 events of patients' intolerance (0.8%; 95% CI, 0.3%-2.1%), and 1 event of tracheostomy tube removal (0.2%; 95% CI, 0%-1.2%). In multivariate analysis, the use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation was associated with potential adverse events with an adjusted odds ratio of 5.8 (95% CI, 2.2-15.6), respectively. Conclusion: Early mobility physical therapy performed by a newly established group was feasible for critically ill patients in Korea. However, potential safety events need to be monitored carefully for patients with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support.