Patients' lived body experiences in the intensive care unit and beyond - a meta-ethnographic synthesis.

Introduction: Physical therapists supporting patients in intensive care unit (ICU) rehabilitation can improve their clinical practice with insight in patients' lived body experiences.

Objective: To gain insight in patients' lived body experiences during ICU stay and in recovery from critical illness.

Methods: Through a comprehensive systematic literature search, 45 empirical phenomenological studies were identified. Patients' lived body experiences were extracted from these studies and synthesized following the seven-phase interpretative approach as described by Noblit and Hare.

Results: Three lines of argument were illuminated: 1) "recovery from critical illness starts from a situation in which patients experience the lived body as unable;" 2) "patients experience progress in recovery from critical illness when the lived body is empowered;" and 3) "recovery from critical illness results in a lived body changed for life." Eleven third-order constructs were formulated as different kinds of bodies: 1) "an intolerable body;" 2) "an alienated body;" 3) "a powerless body;" 4) "a dependent body;" 5) "a restricted body;" 6) "a muted body;" 7) "a touched body;" 8) "a transforming body;" 9) "a re-discovering body;" 10) "an unhomelike body;" and 11) "a remembering body."

Conclusion: Patients' lived body experiences during ICU stay and in recovery from critical illness have richly been described in phenomenological studies and were synthesized in this meta-ethnography.