Search

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to approximately 3.5 million cases in Romania, causing systemic inflammation and over 200 symptoms affecting various body systems. This complexity has challenged rehabilitation systems, necessitating personalized plans tailored to each patient's illness stage and impairment level. The ISPRM-developed ClinFIT COVID-19 instrument, aligned with the ICF categories, assists in assessing patients during acute, post-acute, and long-term phases. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate and assess functional impairments in post-COVID-19 patients in Romania, with a secondary goal of generating rehabilitation directions. Methods: Data were collected from patients at two Bucharest medical centers, including those with persistent symptoms post-acute phase. Participants were assessed using the adapted ClinFIT COVID-19 instrument, and descriptive statistics were applied. Conclusions: Findings revealed diverse functional impairments in physical, psychological, and social domains among post-COVID-19 patients, with severe impairments more common in those with long-term COVID-19. Complete impairment in complex movement and paid work was noted, affecting one-third of salaried employees and forcing some to retire. In the acute phase, the most frequent functional impairments were sleep, attention, pain sensation, and exercise tolerance functions. In contrast, the most severely affected functions were exercise tolerance and mobility joint functions. Age did not positively correlate with any of the analyzed functions. In the post-acute phase, sleep, energy, and drive functions remained the most frequently affected functions, while the most severely affected was, by far, the moving around function. In the post-acute period, respiratory and respiratory muscle functions strongly correlated with all tasks related to physical activity. In the long COVID-19 phase, remunerative employment was the most severely affected function, while attention functions remained the most frequently affected, similar to the acute phase. The ClinFIT COVID-19 instrument effectively captured these impairments, underscoring the need for comprehensive rehabilitation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Post-COVID-19 telogen effluvium has been largely reported as a sequela in the post-acute phase of COVID-19, causing major emotional distress among the affected patients. The affected individuals are further exposed to a vast amount of misinformation from the internet and social media and it is important for physicians to be familiar with the phenomenon and provide appropriate counselling to their patients regarding this condition. This article aims to review the evidence-based complementary strategies that can help enhance hair regrowth after post-COVID-19 hair loss, from psychological support and patient education to the importance of optimal nutrition and potential indications and benefits of oral nutritional supplementation, as well as the role of both topical and injectable hair growth stimulators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic had a great negative impact on nursing homes, with massive outbreaks being reported in care facilities all over the world, affecting not only the residents but also the care workers and visitors. Due to their advanced age and numerous underlying diseases, the inhabitants of long-term care facilities represent a vulnerable population that should benefit from additional protective measures against contamination. Recently, multiple countries such as France, Spain, Belgium, Canada, and the United States of America reported that an important fraction from the total number of deaths due to the SARS-CoV-2 infection emerged from nursing homes. The scope of this paper was to present the latest data regarding the COVID-19 spread in care homes worldwide, identifying causes and possible solutions that would limit the outbreaks in this overlooked category of population. It is the authors' hope that raising awareness on this matter would encourage more studies to be conducted, considering the fact that there is little information available on the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on nursing homes. Establishing national databases that would register all nursing home residents and their health status would be of great help in the future not only for managing the ongoing pandemic but also for assessing the level of care that is needed in this particularly fragile setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]