Medical Rehabilitation of Children after a New Coronavirus Infection COVID-19

• Published in: Bulletin of Rehabilitation Medicine Vol. 20; no. 4; pp. 4 - 12
• Main Authors: Petrova, Maria S., Khan, Maya A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation. National Medical Research Center of Rehabilitation and Balneology 31.08.2021
• Subjects: children; covid-19; kinesotherapy; medical rehabilitation; physical therapy; physiotherapy; sanatorium-resort treatment; therapeutic exercises
• ISSN: 2078-1962; 2713-2625
• DOI: 10.38025/2078-1962-2021-20-4-4-12

The article is about medical rehabilitation of children who have suffered from the coronavirus infection COVID-19, which is an acute infectious disease caused by a new strain of the coronavirus SARS CoV-2. The authors present current information about epidemiology and clinical course of this disease in children. It is known that complications and adverse outcomes of COVID-19 in children are observed much less frequently than in adults. At the same time, the clinical experience of monitoring children who have had a new coronavirus infection showed that all patients need medical rehabilitation, including those who had the disease in asymptomatic or mild form. Data on the possibility of functional disorders not only in the respiratory organs but also in other systems of the body determines the necessity of stage-by-stage medical rehabilitation of these children. The article defines the main principles and stages of their rehabilitation, proves the necessity of indications for different stages. Medical rehabilitation of children after a new coronavirus infection at all stages is provided by specialists of a multidisciplinary rehabilitation team which includes a pediatrician, a physiotherapist, an exercise therapist, a medical rehabilitation doctor, a reflexologist, a medical psychologist, a speech therapist, an instructor-methodologist, etc. This article presents a wide range of modern techniques of apparatus physiotherapy and kinesotherapy indicated for children who have undergone COVID-19, with the description of the main therapeutic effects and the mechanism of therapeutic action of physical factors. Psychological rehabilitation is of great importance in the complex of rehabilitation measures for children with COVID-19. Special attention is paid to the issues of sanatorium-resort treatment of children after a new coronavirus infection. The spectrum of nonmedicamentous technologies for inclusion in the individual program of sanatorium-resort treatment of such patients with the use of natural healing resources (mineral waters, therapeutic mud, therapeutic climate, other natural conditions used for treatment and prevention of diseases); nonmedicamentous therapy, therapeutic exercises, massage, physiotherapy, hydrotherapy, reflexotherapy, psychotherapy is determined. The article presents criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of rehabilitation measures.