Influence of therapeutic exercises and hardware massage in electrostatic field on lung damage in patients with novel coronavirus pneumonia

Abstract

To analyze the efficacy and safety of therapeutic exercises and chest hardware massage in electrostatic field in patients with COVID-associated viral pneumonia. We retrospectively analyzed 1551 patients admitted to the Clinical Hospital No. 1 (MEDSI Group JSC) with COVID-associated pneumonia between April 01, 2020 and June 15, 2021 (ICD-10 U07.1 and U07.2). Considering inclusion and exclusion criteria, we enrolled 153 patients. All patients were divided into comparable groups and subgroups depending on the methods of rehabilitation treatment and CT stage of viral pneumonia. Lung damage was assessed semi-automatically using Philips Portal v11 COPD software. Rehabilitation measures included therapeutic exercises and chest hardware massage in electrostatic field. therapeutic exercises. Therapeutic exercises significantly reduced severity of lung damage in patients with viral pneumonia CT-2 and no oxygen support (from 28.05% [28; 29.5] at admission to 15.3% [14.2; 19.3] at discharge). It was not observed in patients without rehabilitation treatment and in patients undergoing therapeutic exercises and massage in electrostatic field. Therapeutic exercises in patients with COVID-19 and baseline lung damage > 25% and < 50% (CT-2 stage) significantly reduce severity of lung damage at discharge compared to the control group.