Copyright
©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Crit Care Med. Dec 9, 2025; 14(4): 107396
Published online Dec 9, 2025. doi: 10.5492/wjccm.v14.i4.107396
Published online Dec 9, 2025. doi: 10.5492/wjccm.v14.i4.107396
Safety and early mobilization in intensive care unit patients: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
Syed A Khan, Department of Critical Care Medicine, Mayo Clinic Health System, Mankato, MN 56001, United States
Abdul Moeed, Department of Internal Medicine, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi 74200, Sindh, Pakistan
Tahreem Mari, Department of Medicine, Dow Medical College, Karachi 74200, Sindh, Pakistan
Zehra Yousuf, Department of Medicine, Rhodes College, Memphis, TN 38112, United States
Arthur Hanson, Department of Medicine, Carleton College, Northfield, MN 55057, United States
Yue Dong, Department of Anesthesiology and Periopertive Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55901, United States
Patrick Cornelius, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, United States
Humayun Anjum, Department of Medicine, Baylor Scott and White, Grapevine, TX 76051, United States
Iqbal Ratnani, Department of Anesthesiology, Houston Methodist, Houston, Texas 77030, United States
Salim Surani, Department of Medicine and Pharmacology, Texas AM University, College Station, TX 77843, United States
Salim Surani, Department of Anesthesiology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, United States
Author contributions: Khan SA, Moeed A, and Mari T contributed to conceptualization, methodology, writing–original draft, formal analysis, writing–review and editing; Mari T, Yousuf Z, and Hanson A contributed to investigation, data curation, software, data analysis, writing–review and editing; Surani S contributed to project administration, funding acquisition, writing–review and editing; Dong Y and Cornelius P contributed to supervision, writing–review and editing; Anjum H, Ratnani I, and Surani S contributed to validation, writing–review and editing.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Salim Surani, MD, Professor, Department of Medicine and Phar
Received: March 24, 2025
Revised: April 17, 2025
Accepted: May 27, 2025
Published online: December 9, 2025
Processing time: 251 Days and 11.1 Hours
Revised: April 17, 2025
Accepted: May 27, 2025
Published online: December 9, 2025
Processing time: 251 Days and 11.1 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: This updated systematic review and meta-analysis of 16 randomized controlled trials involving 2385 intensive care unit (ICU) patients demonstrates that initiating early mobilization (EM) (within 72 hours of ICU admission) significantly reduces ICU length of stay and mechanical ventilation duration while improving muscle strength and functional status. EM does not increase adverse events or mortality, supporting its safety and efficacy as a routine ICU intervention.