What to do if your muscles atrophy due to long-term bed rest

For some patients, they will be bedridden for a long time, especially paralyzed patients. The impact of long-term bedrest is relatively large, which can easily cause muscle atrophy and aggravate the condition. Therefore, for people who are bedridden for a long time, they should also pay attention to moderate exercise during the period of bedrest. If their ability and conditions permit, they can move their bodies frequently. Usually, family members or caregivers can also do some massage and physical therapy, which can help slow down muscle atrophy.

What to do if your muscles atrophy due to long-term bed rest

1. Provide good psychological care and pay attention to the patient's ideological work. Paralysis brings a heavy mental burden to patients. Family members must encourage patients to be optimistic and open-minded, build up confidence in overcoming the disease, enable them to cooperate with medical staff and family members, perform functional exercises of paralyzed limbs as soon as possible, and prevent joint deformities and muscle atrophy. 2. Maintain the functional position of the limbs. The finger joints of the paralyzed limbs should be extended and slightly flexed. A piece of sponge can be placed in the patient's hand; the elbow joint should be slightly flexed; the shoulder joint of the upper limb should be slightly abducted to avoid adduction of the joint; extend the hip and knee joints; to prevent foot drop, the ankle joint should be slightly dorsiflexed; to prevent external rotation of the lower limbs, sandbags or other support objects should be placed on the outer side.

3. Strengthen the activities of paralyzed limbs. When we take care of paralyzed patients, we need to provide them with some limb massage and pain-relieving activities. This can prevent limb contracture and deformity caused by long-term limb inactivity. 4. Prevent complications: Due to movement and sensory disorders in paralyzed limbs and poor local vascular and neurological nutrition, bedsores are likely to occur if the compression time is long. Therefore, you should pay attention to changing your body position, usually turning over once every 2 hours, gently massaging the red areas that are pressed, and you can also use safflower alcohol for massage to improve local blood circulation.

The bed should be dry and flat, and personal hygiene should be maintained. You can take a bath, but you should keep warm to prevent cold. When using a hot water bottle or bathing, the water temperature should be appropriate to prevent skin burns. When turning over, the back should be tapped appropriately and expectoration should be encouraged to prevent aspiration pneumonia. You need to have enough intake, especially in summer, to drink enough water to ensure adequate nutrition. Choose vegetables and fruits rich in fiber and vitamins, develop bowel habits, and prevent constipation.

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