Does Telerehabilitation for Coronavirus Disease 2019 Patients Discharged with Oxygen Shorten the Time of Weaning from Oxygen?

Abstract

Early pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) and acute and post-acute mobilization with telemonitoring and telerehabilitation (TR) have been recommended for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients. We aimed to compare the duration of weaning from oxygen in patients with hypoxemic COVID-19 who received PR and those who did not. This study was designed as a quasi-experimental study and was conducted on patients discharged with oxygen supplementation between December 2021 and May 2022. They were compared with patients who received PR and those who did not in terms of the duration of oxygen use. A total of 61 patients (9 women in each group) completed the study. The mean age was 65 ± 12. Thirty patients underwent PR (group 1) and the remaining 31 patients were classified as control group (group 2). When the groups were compared in terms of duration of oxygen use, patients who performed PR were statistically significant shorter duration than those who did not (P = .012). In addition, PR improved their quality of life compared to group 2. It was concluded that although PR has many indications, it is also effective, feasible, and safe in prolonged infections and it was thought that TR may also be effective as supervised PR.