Recommendations for respiratory rehabilitation in adults with coronavirus disease 2019

Abstract

[...]we combined the opinions of frontline epidemic control experts and reviewed the evidence in relevant literature. Two members of the evidence assessment team performed independent computer searches of English databases (PubMed, Ovid, Embase), Chinese databases (Chinese Biological Medical Literature database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Medical Journal Database), and relevant online website bulletins on COVID-19 (the World Health Organization, Elsevier, the Lancet, the New England Journal of Medicine, and the Journal of the American Medical Association, 2019 Novel Coronavirus Resource (2019nCoVR), and the Chinese Medical Journal Network). The search terms included the English terms and their Chinese equivalents: “novel coronavirus pneumonia,” “NCP,” “severe acute respiratory syndrome,” “SARS,” “Middle East Respiratory Syndrome,” “MERS,” “influenza,” “psychological therapy,” “guideline,” “statement,” “recommendation,” “randomized controlled trial,” and other rehabilitation-related English search terms and their Chinese equivalents included “respiratory rehabilitation,” “pulmonary rehabilitation,” “physiotherapy,” “physical therapy,” and “occupational therapy.” [11] Recommendations Intervention timing for respiratory rehabilitation in moderately ill patients Due to the limited understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms of COVID-19, current clinical observations found that around 3% to 5% of moderately ill patients develop severe or even critical disease after 7 to 14 days of infection. [...]the exercise intensity should not be too high as its objective is to maintain the existing physical status.