Rehabilitation in critical illness

This chapter focuses on those situations where the effects of a critical illness can produce additional morbidity with the potential to affect later rehabilitation. In the context of critical illness, much of this additional morbidity takes the form of readily predictable complications resulting from the disease process or the consequences of its early management. In this sense, rehabilitation principles should be an essential and integrated part of management in the intensive care unit (ICU) setting. Even though it is occurring in ICU, the goals of rehabilitation are unchanged—to maximize the potential for the person to maximize their short- and long-term functional capacity and quality of life. This chapter also describes rehabilitation in specific critical illnesses.