Naina Mishra
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, April 25
The Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) has started using the age-old technique of postural therapy (also known as postural drainage) for early recovery of Covid hypoxemia (a condition where the blood oxygen level is low).
This therapy is being performed right from the beginning when the patient is admitted so that his/her condition does not worsen during illness. It involves changing the position of the patient from time to time to drain mucus from the lungs.
Most people infected with the SARS virus develop pneumonia, which causes one or both lungs to fill with pus and fluids, making breathing difficult. Prof GD Puri, Head, Department of Anaesthesia & Intensive Care & Dean (Academics), explains, “For patients with hypoxemia, there are many physiologic benefits of postural therapy. The timely change of position results in a more homogenous distribution of stress in lungs. Thus, it may prevent them from developing frank respiratory failure.”
“For this reason, patients admitted with hypoxemia should be encouraged to adopt different defined positions. Changing patient position changes may be used as rescue therapy in those with escalating oxygen requirement,” said Dr Puri.
Whenever a positive patient is admitted with moderate symptoms, the PGI’s Covid hospital’s main focus is to try that patients do not come on a ventilator. Dr Puri said, “Once a patient gets on a ventilator, things get more complicated as the patient gets bedridden. The treatment gets labour-intensive as more nursing staff have to be deployed and there are more chances of infection.”
The benefits of postural therapy include better matching of pulmonary perfusion to ventilation, better recruitment of dependent areas of the lung and improved arterial oxygenation.
‘Multiple tests being run on patients’
The primary focus of the institute to uphold the medical condition of patients from worsening by detecting the signs of deterioration early and thus the staff are actively involved in running a series of tests and monitoring vital signs of the patient.
Dr Puri explains, “There are methods devised wherein we can diagnose sick patients much earlier before their condition starts deteriorating.”
“We are remotely monitoring the condition of patients via a CCTV control room. A number of blood tests are also being run on patients to find out whether their condition will deteriorate,” he added.
‘Ensure prior screening before sending patients’
Dr Jagat Ram, Director, PGI, brought to the knowledge of the UT Administrator that non-critical patients were being sent to the institute without prior checking for Covid. The Administrator directed the Principal Secretary, Health, to take up the matter with the neighbouring states and to ensure that necessary screening was done before such patients were treated in our hospitals. He expressed apprehension that if major hospitals of Chandigarh became a hub for infection, then the entire health management system would get crippled.
Preparedness to check pandemic
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