RESUMO
Introduction. In March 2020, San Donato Hospital in Arezzo was converted into a COVID hospital 2020 due to the pandemic spreading of SARS-CoV-2 disease. Physiotherapists took part into the treatment and management in the newly established health care setting. Material and methods. Given the novelty of COVID disease and its clinical representation, we suggest a case series describing the treatment choices adopted by physiotherapists in the new COVID intensive care unit. Patients enrolled for treatment were monitored from admission to dimission through outcome measures already validated for well-known respiratory diseases. Consequently, physiotherapy treatment was inspired to the early mobilization protocol used in intensive respiratory care unit. Results. Results show general improvements of outcome measures and patients general conditions. Discussion and conclusions. These interventions may bring benefit to this new type of patients, even if it would be useful to compare other rehabilitation protocols. It would also be advisable to evaluate the conditions of clinical and respiratory function over time. In the case of acute comorbidity, the rehabilitation intervention is subject to the treatment of the primary symptoms due to COVID-19.