- Lack of physical activity, confinement and even long periods in bed in the most serious cases, cause multisystem involvement, damaging much more than the lungs
- They explain that a muscular atrophy occurs that causes difficulties in balance, walking or staying upright and in some cases, even paralysis.
Health group professionals Ribera They warn of sequelae in Covid patients such as fatigue, generalized pain, paralysis and the functional inability to resume the activities they carried out before becoming infected. "The Sars-Cov-2 virus produces a multisystem affectation, damaging much more than the lungs," they say.
Given the increase in cases that is being registered in this third wave throughout Spain, specialists from the Physiotherapy Area of the University Hospitals of Torrevieja y Vinalopo remember that one of the most affected systems is the musculoskeletal system, which is harmed by the virus itself and also by the complications derived from it. Lack of exercise or physical activity and confinement, in mild cases, and a prolonged stay in bed in more serious cases, can affect the patient for a long time and even permanently.
Dr. Adrián Gallego, traumatologist at Hospital Ribera polusa, coincides in the prevalence of sequelae such as fatigue or asthenia and generalized pain, to which is added loss of muscle mass and strength, decreased motor capacity and mobility, weight loss and protein deficit, usually aggravated by a loss of capacity lung disease and difficulty falling asleep. To which the nursing supervisor of the ambulatory area of Torrejon, Enrique Gonzalvo, adds among the most common side effects in Covid patients "loss of muscle flexibility, fibrosis and adhesive capsulitis and loss of balance and difficulty walking or standing". "After a period of immobilization, muscle atrophy occurs, because the muscles lose size." In more severe patients, sequelae can include, he explains, "bedsores, entrapment neuropathies, residual edema, and paralysis."
And that involvement of muscle fibers, called myopathy, explains Laura Rubio, a physiotherapist at the Hospital Povisa, appears not only on the lower extremities. "The patient presents loss of strength in the most proximal musculature, in the shoulders and scapulae, in the trunk, the pelvis and in the hip, generating very disabling muscle weakness, because it hinders basic functions."
For all this, patients suffering from this disease are treated in the Ribera group hospitals by a multidisciplinary team that addresses all aspects that have been affected in the patient. "From the point of view of Physiotherapy, an approach is carried out, not only through respiratory and musculoskeletal physiotherapy techniques, but also from a biopsychosocial and educational point of view", explains Cristina González, supervisor of the Physiotherapy Area in the hospitals of Vinalopó and Torrevieja.
Dr. Gallego, an orthopedic surgeon at Ribera Polusa, also recommends a specific rehabilitation program, based on individualized exercise and adapted to each patient, under the supervision of the doctor and the physiotherapist. "Electrostimulation and neuromodulation can be used, which help to overcome the physical sequelae and reduce pain"
Physiotherapy is included in all phases of the disease and it works with the patient, whenever the professionals so determine, both in the Intensive Care Unit and in hospitalization, on an outpatient basis or telematically. For Laura Rubio, a Povisa physiotherapist, "we can help prevent or minimize these sequelae and complications with early mobilization, if the patient is hemodynamically stable, to maintain joint mobility, tissue elasticity and prevent postural problems, and also with physical therapy and therapeutic exercise.”
"So far, the recovery process requires work, patience and time, since recovery is related to the complexity of each Covid process, as well as the previous state of the patient," says the supervisor from Vinalopó and Torrevieja.
The testimony of one of the patients in our hospitals, Jesús Ruíz, is very revealing. Jesús lives in Los Palacios, in Fomentera del Segura, and worked in an export warehouse when on October 31 he went to the Emergency Department of the Torrevieja University Hospital after several days with general malaise. He was admitted to the ICU because his condition was serious, and he stayed there for a month and a week. “I lost all my muscle mass, I could barely stand, but they helped me to get rid of my fear and to walk again and little by little I am recovering. I did not know that in such a short time a person could remain in the bones and the skin, ”he says. "When I left the ICU I could only move my head, I couldn't move any joints, nothing," he adds. Jesús values the commitment and effort of all the health professionals involved in his recovery, in the ICU and also now with rehabilitation. "I have no words," he thanks.
