• Mushabbab Alahmari, Hany Farid Elsisi, and Ali Mohamed Ali Ismail.
• Department of Respiratory Therapy, College of Applied Medical Sciences, University of Bisha, Bisha, Saudi Arabia.
• Ir J Med Sci. 2025 Feb 3.

BackgroundIntensive care unit acquired-weakness syndrome (ICUAWS) leaves several complications in functional movements of patients such as severe walking disability.ObjectiveAssessment of functional outcomes of 1-month inspiratory muscle training (IMT) in elderly with ICUAWS and severe walking disability was our aim. The design, setting, participants, and intervention. This study is a randomized controlled trial. ICUAWS patients who complained of severe walking disability on the Modified Functional Ambulatory Category Test (MFACT) were randomly assigned into the IMT group or control group, n = 20 for each group. Both groups received the traditional physical therapy program.ResultsThe results showed that the post-therapy between-group comparison of ICUAWS sufferers/groups' parameters showed a significant improvement toward the IMT group in six-minute walk test, inspiratory and expiratory muscle strength, forced vital capacity, time up and go test, 10-m walk test, forced expiratory volume in the first second, 30-s sit-to-stand test, partial pressure of arterial blood oxygen and carbon dioxide, MFACT, oxygen saturation of arterial blood, physical, and mental summary of short form 36.ConclusionIn conclusion, IMT improves functional outcomes in ICUAWS patients with walking disability.Trial Registration NumberThe clinical trial ID of this ICUAWS trial is NCT06210763.© 2025. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland.

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