Results of health-improving treatment of patients with a new COVID-19 coronavirus infection in a phthisiopulmonological sanatorium
The results of sanatorium treatment of 102 patients (aged 18 to 79 years, 30 men and 72 women) who have had a new coronavirus infection (COVID-19) are presented in the article. Materials and methods. A 21-day health im-proving program was developed to restore the functions of external respiration, increase mobility, achieve psych-oemotional stability, and restore patients’ daily activities. Exercise tolerance (6-minute walking test, Borg scale, mMRC scale), hypoxia tolerance (Genchi and Stange func-tional tests), peripheral muscles’ strength (MRC scale), ox-ygen saturation, anxiety and depression intensity (HADS Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), quality of life (EQ-5D), and nutritional status were evaluated, as well as in-dicators of external respiratory function of patients upon admission and discharge from the sanatorium. Results.In the result of such therapy clinical and laboratory indi-cators improved (patients rarer complained of weakness (down from 73% to 3.9%), shortness of breath during exercise (from 58 to 14.7%), manifestations of angiodis-tonic syndrome (from 39 to 3%), and ESR level (from 40 to 13.7%). During the 6-minute walk test, there was a sig-nificant increase in the distance traveled compared to the test at admission in all observation groups. 83 out of 90 test subjects (92.2%) co vered a longer distance covered. On average, the distance increased 14% in patients with mild COVID, the average increase was 81 meters, 12% (47 meters) in patients with moderate severity, and 21% (112 meters) in those who had severe infection. Psych-oemotional state evaluated by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale showed a decrease in the average level of anxiety from 4.9 to 3.6, and depression — from 4.3 to 3 points. The average quality of life score (EQ-5D ques-tionnaire) at discharge was 7.3 points compared to 8.9 at admission. Conclusion. The authors demonstrated the effectiveness of the sanatorium-resort care in achieving psychoemotional stability and restoring daily activities in COVID-19 recovalescents