A critical care specialist at Johns Hopkins who has reviewed recent studies of intensive care unit (ICU) patients and data from The Johns Hopkins Hospital concludes that the routine use of deep sedation and bed rest in ICU patients may be causing unnecessary and long-term physical impairment and poor quality of life after hospital discharge.

"The benefits of getting hospitalized patients out of bed and moving were understood during World War II with battlefield injuries," says Dale Needham, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "My review shows it may be time to go back to the future. It's becoming clear that the safety and benefits of early mobilization are real and that it's better to get moving sooner rather than later."