Electrical Stimulation for Critically Ill Post-Covid-19 Patients

Unfortunately, hospital-acquired weakness is highly prevalent among COVID-19 hospitalized patients, who often require prolonged bed-rest or paralytics for an extended period of time in order to maintain oxygenation. Prolonged bed rest has been associated with pronounced loss of muscle mass that can exceed 10% over the 1st week, which leads to functional impairment and complications post-hospital discharge. Physical therapy and in-hospital mobility program may reduce the incident of hospital-acquired weakness, but they are often impractical for COVID-19 patients. In particular, conventional mobility programs are challenging for those who are being treated in an intensive Care Unit. The purpose of this study is to test feasibility and proof-of-concept effectiveness of daily use of lower extremity electrical stimulation (EE) therapy, as a practical solution to address lower extremity muscle deconditioning, to address chronic consequences of COVID-19 including hospital-acquired weakness.

20 subjects that were hospitalized due to severe COVID-19 infection and present neuromuscular complications (i.e., hospital acquired weakness due to neuromyopathy) will be recruited after the first phase of this study is completed. Unlike Phase I (study for prevention), this is a proof of concept randomized control trial (RCT) study for recovery. The patients will be recruited from the COVID-19 Clinic at Baylor College of Medicine and will begin the study after being diagnosed with neuromyopathy due to prolonged hospitalization for COVID-19. This will be performed by a critical care and pulmonary specialist at the BCM COVID-19 Clinic. The entire cohort will receive daily electrical stimulation in lower extremity (e.g. Gastrocnemius, tibial anterior muscle) up to 1 hour to recover from Neuromyopathy complications and prolonged hospital stay. Participants will be randomized to intervention (IG) or control group (CG)). EE therapy will be provided using a bio-electric stimulation technology (BEST) platform (Tennant Biomodulator PRO®, AVAZZIA, Inc.). The EE device will be functional for IG and non-functional for CG. In addition to taking the device home to deliver electrical stimulation themselves, the patients will attend a weekly assessment at the McNair Campus for up to 4 weeks. The primary outcomes include between group difference and change from the baseline in muscle endurance, muscle strength, lower extremity tissue oxygen saturation, neuropathy, and muscle atrophy.