A critical appraisal of “The effect of increased mobility on morbidity in the neurointensive care unit”

Abstract

Early mobilization in intensive care unit (ICU) patients is a relatively new intervention, with bed rest being the previous gold standard. This critical appraisal will analyze an article that studied the implementation of early mobilization in a neuro ICU with the goal to ascertain if such a treatment is safe for patients and if it affected various other factors common to ICU stay. This appraisal will analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the study design and the published article. This appraisal will also suggest multiple ways the article could be improved for future publication or study design. Overall, this study concludes that early mobilization is a safe and effective treatment for neuro ICU (NICU) patients, and based on the article I agree with their conclusion. However, further data collection and studies, such as randomized-control trial, would be needed to fully validate the intervention.