SEQUELAS DA COVID-19: UMA ABORDAGEM NA AVALIAÇÃO FISIOTERAPÊUTICA CARDIORRESPIRATÓRIA

Abstract

Coronavirus disease (Covid-19) is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, characterized as an acute respiratory disease. It can cause persistent sequelae in the respiratory system, resulting in reduced lung volume and capacity, difficulties in exercising, functional loss, tiredness, fatigue, dyspnea even at rest or when performing activities of daily living. The objective of the present study was to identify the main post-Covid-19 sequelae of individuals who sought cardiorespiratory physiotherapy care in a polyclinic. The research is descriptive, retrospective and quantitative, carried out with data from medical records of individuals treated between the months of January and December 2021. The data was analyzed with the IBM Statistics SPSS 20 software and the graphs were created with the Microsoft Excel software. Data normality was checked by the Shapiro-Wilk test. Of the 121 medical records analyzed, 77 patients were recruited for research, 58.40% of whom were female, with an average age of 56.75 ± 14.31 years. The patients' average body mass index was 27.92 and the most common comorbidities were Systemic Arterial Hypertension (57%) and Diabetes Mellitus (23%). During the acute episode of Covid-19, dyspnea was present in 67.5% of participants and 42 (54.5%) individuals required hospital admission. In the respiratory assessment using the manometer, 6 (7.8%) individuals presented weakness, 3 (3.9%), fatigue and 1 (1.3%) failure. At peak expiratory flow, 27 (35.1%) individuals had the green classification and 47 (61.1%) had the yellow and red classification. When evaluating the six-minute walk test, women achieved an average of 512.76 meters and men 450.58 meters, with no significant difference between the predicted and achieved test values for women (p=0.685) and nor for men (p=0.314). From the above, we characterized that the profile of patients who sought a post-covid-19 cardiorespiratory rehabilitation service was predominantly female and with chronic diseases that required hospitalization for treatment. When seeking rehabilitation, they mainly complained of dyspnea and fatigue, with evidence of a degree of expiratory muscle weakness and a degree of bronchial obstruction. Knowing the profile of patients treated with post-Covid-19 characteristics is necessary in order to develop new health education strategies, in addition to encouraging the search for more effective treatments.