Physiotherapy practices when treating patients with COVID-19 during a pandemic: A survey study.
Anthony Trojman, Judith Hough, Julie Hides and 3 others
PMID 36209724WHAT IT FOUND
Hospital physiotherapists treating COVID-19 worked a middle value of 12 hours per 24 h, used chest X-ray and arterial blood gas tests, and often used auscultation or non-invasive ventilation despite guideline cautions.
Key findings
01The largest reported barrier to treating patients with COVID-19 was a lack of ICU trained staff (70%).
0266% of participants used auscultation despite it being considered a high infection risk.
0370% used non-invasive ventilation for deteriorating patients, even though 75% had been directed not to use it.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
Responses were not evenly distributed across countries; 116 came from Chile, so the findings may not represent all physiotherapists. The study asked physiotherapists what they did, not what happened to patients, so it cannot show whether any technique was effective or harmful. Five responses were excluded from the hours analysis because they exceeded 24 h. The recruitment period was longer than expected, which may have caused recall bias.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest, and the research did not receive any specific grant from public, commercial or not-for-profit funding agencies.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the high use of chest X-ray, arterial blood gas tests, proning or non-invasive ventilation as evidence that these treatments worked or were guideline-approved. This was a self-report survey of physiotherapists, and many used techniques that guidelines had cautioned against.