Mobility in the PICU

As mortality improves in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), patients are surviving with significant functional deficits. Outcomes literature, mostly focused in the adult population, supports early mobility as an approach to mitigate the physical deficits incurred by ICU patients. Research has illustrated numerous benefits of early mobility, including increased muscle fiber cross-sectional area, earlier achievement of activities of daily living, fewer ventilator days, decreased ICU length of stay, decreased hospital length of stay, and less delirium. Despite these findings, there is a limited pediatric outcome evidence and well-documented barriers to instituting mobility protocols in the PICU. However, numerous pediatric feasibility studies have supported the attainability and safety of early mobility in the pediatric population. More robust research on the effects of early mobility in children is needed, as is support for resources, as pediatric programs work toward instituting their own programs.