Blog

• quinta, 04 de maio de 2023
• ReCARE

"Happiness and enthusiasm summed up today's day!" That's how Professor Dr. Rodrigo Marques Tonella, faculty member of the Department of Physical Therapy at EEFFTO - UFMG, defined the arrival of ReCARE at the Hospital Risoleta Tolentino Neves. The technology will be used in the Intensive Care Unit to enable a randomized, multicenter clinical trial using Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation (NMES) for early muscular diagnosis and rehabilitation of critical patients as a tool for preventing ICU-acquired weakness (ICUAW).

The proposal to stimulate 12 pairs of skeletal muscles, based on electrodiagnosis, for individualized adjustment of current dosage, is a novel procedure applied to seriously ill patients, in addition to being safe and personalized. The involvement of researchers in different research centers, UFMG students, both undergraduate and graduate, will mean the improvement of the technique and will soon allow its definitive implementation in the routine physiotherapeutic care of critically ill patients. In addition, with the involvement of the multidisciplinary ICU team, the new technology, combined with the research project, will promote the continuing education of the healthcare team and improvement of quality indicators of a regional reference hospital, with exclusive care for the SUS, the HRTN, added Prof. Rodrigo, one of the research coordinators.

Dr. Rodrigo Marques Tonella, professor at the Department of Physiotherapy at EEFFTO – UFMG

"The research to be conducted at HRTN aims to contribute to the scientific evidence on the use of Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation for patients with acquired muscle weakness in the Intensive Care Unit. We hope that this will provide greater functionality and better recovery for this group of patients, justifying all the effort we have made and the determination that has driven us in the last 3 years for so many discussions, meetings, studies, text production, and ethical procedures that have allowed us to get here," adds Professor Dra. Ligia de Loiola Cisneros, a professor at the Department of Physiotherapy at EEFFTO – UFMG, one of the coordinators of the research and the project's creator.

Dr. Ligia de Loiola Cisneros, professor at the Department of Physiotherapy at EEFFTO – UFMG

For Dr. Raquel Teixeira, a PhD student at UFMG, "it is of great satisfaction and honor to be able to contribute to improving the quality of life of patients of the Brazilian Unified Health System. I was an academic, a volunteer researcher, worked in the ICU of Risoleta for 6 years, and being able to return to the hospital with this study is a great joy, as I know that ReCARE is the only system with a power module capable of delivering high intensity electrostimulation and significant improvements, such as reducing ICU hospitalization time and time on mechanical ventilation, contributing to an improvement in functional capacity."