Following critical illness, it is not uncommon for one to experience new or worsened physical limitations or difficulties. This can be due to the critical illness/injury itself, prolonged time spent in bed with limited physical activity, or preexisting physical challenges that worsen following hospitalization. Of all of the aspects of Post Intensive Care Syndrome (body, mind, and emotions), the physical changes are the most easily recognized and are therefore more readily addressed.

or many years, we believed that a good outcome for critically ill patients was for them to leave the intensive care unit (ICU) alive. Sadly, we now know from substantial research, including in-depth follow-up of individual patients, that this is not the case.

Many cohort studies of critically ill patients that prospectively followed people after hospital discharge raised concerns regarding long-term outcomes (1–4). Despite the importance of this work, such prospective cohort studies are limited in the type and amount of information they can provide because of small sample size or number of outcome events, uncertain generalizability, and a lack of information on prehospital trajectories. Perhaps most important, many of these exploratory studies lacked comparison with appropriate controls. Therefore, the burden of morbidity and mortality after critical illness was quantified, but with uncertainty regarding the level of attribution to the critical illness and its associated treatments and the contribution of either underlying comorbidity or hospitalization of any kind. In effect, these studies identified that “we have a problem,” but their limitations did not allow us to more fully understand the severity, duration, causation, and trajectory of these problems from the perspectives of our patients and our health systems.

We are going to discuss Post Intensive Care Syndrome and Prevention Part II - what loved ones can do to help prevent PICS.

It is not uncommon for loved ones to feel overwhelmed when in the intensive care unit. The ICU is a very unfamiliar and scary environment for most people, and caring for your critically ill loved one can seem like too much at times. However, the physical presence through voice and touch that a loved one can provide can be as therapeutically beneficial as many of the interventions provided by the medical team.