CHENNAI: In a first-of-its kind initiative, doctors at Government Kilpauk Medical College Hospital have initiated a measure to study the condition of Covid patients after discharge, to rehabilitated them in a better way. Progress of around 100 patients will be tracked to gauge the effect of the intervention. Twenty patients have already been roped in for the study.
“The recovered patients again came back with complications like body pain, fatigue, myalgia, breathing difficulty, tiredness, depression and anxiety. Some came back after a month,” said Dr S Chandrasekar, professor of General Medicine, Government Kilpauk Medical College Hospital.
“So, we want to rehabilitate them and see how they have improved after this intervention. At least 10 to 15 per cent of patients who were discharged from the hospital came back with these symptoms,” added Dr Chandrasekar.
What kind of intervention?
Some patients with lung infection, even after testing negative, continue to have hypoxia as a sequel of the pneumonia. So, they will be categorised based on oxygen levels, said Dr P Thirunavukkarasu, Head, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation programme of the hospital.
A patients’ respiratory holding capacity will be assessed. For people with body pain, myalgia and other symptoms, we will teach physical exercise. For people coming with depression and anxiety we provide counselling, added Dr Chandrasekar.
The programme is also provided for patients who cannot be discharged from hospital because of low oxygen level despite testing negative, says Dr Thirunavukkarasu. “We have begun to recruit people and maintaining their data base. It is just two weeks and it may take at least four months to present the results,” said Dr Chandrasekar.