Introduction: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease causes severe
acute respiratory syndrome. With the increasing number of SARS-CoV infections, a growing
number of patients required prolonged intensive care with mechanical ventilation. Critical
illness myopathy was found in 48 to 96% of patients who required long-term mechanical
ventilation. Patients with critical illness myopathy often become severely weakened and
require early rehabilitation and an individualized physiotherapy approach. Early
rehabilitation includes a physiotherapist who, through locomotor and respiratory
physiotherapy techniques, improves the patient`s coordination, balance, mobility, muscle
strength, independence, functional ability and respiratory function. Purpose: The purpose
of this thesis is to present physiotherapeutic treatment and its effectiveness in a specific
patient with myopathy following recovery from COVID-19. Post-COVID myopathies can
vary significantly in their response to therapy, so sharing these cases is crucial for expanding
knowledge and experience in physiotherapeutic clinical practice. This particular case
demonstrates the successful combination of physiotherapy tehniques and rehabilitation
methods for patient with post-COVID myopathy, which may encourage further research and
clinical practice. Methods: This thesis is a case report of a patient. The physiotherapeutic
treatment of the patient is presented with description of a physiotherapeutic procedures used
during early rehabilitation. These procedures are compared with recommendations from
revelant professional literature in both Slovenian and English, found in scientific databases.
Results: In the case of a patient with critical illness myopathy following recovery from
COVID-19, the selected goals are consistent with the problems identifies in the medical
documentation, measurements and testing. The patient showed improvment in goniometric
measurements, muscle testing, the 6-minute walk test, the 30-second sit-to-stand test, the
DEMMI test, the 10-meter walk test and spirometry. The patient improved muscle strength,
endurance, balance in walking ability. Discussion and Conclusion: This case demonstrates
an example of successful physiotherapeutic treatment tailored to a patient recovering from
post-COVID-19 critical illness myopathy. After completing the physiotherapeutic treatment,
most of the clinical goals were achieved (improvement in coordination and balance,
improvement in functional activities, improvement in muscle strength, lung ventilation and
maintenance or increase in mobity), which indicates the appropriate selection of locomotor
and respiratory physiotherapy methods and techniques.
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