The Critical Patient

This chapter provides the necessary tools to identify patients experiencing critical illness that are suitable for rehabilitation treatment as well as how to identify characteristics that may preclude the use of rehabilitation treatment or indicate it is time to terminate therapy. Additionally, this chapter will address means by which to create an environment safe for rehabilitation treatment in patients with debilitating illness. The unique conditions that affect patients with multisystemic, critical disease states will be discussed and the appropriate rehabilitation exercises for these conditions will be presented with proposed applications and modifications.