César Fernández de las Peñas, physiotherapist and professor at King Juan Carlos University, presents the first multidisciplinary unit for the treatment of long COVID promoted by this institution, a project backed by European funds and designed to comprehensively address a complex, multisystem pathology still full of unknowns.
In his testimony, he emphasizes that, today, talking about curing long COVID is premature. Therefore, true therapeutic success lies in improving the patient’s quality of life, accompanying them through the process and helping them recover a substantial part of their functionality. In this context, he highlights the value of NESA technology as a strategic tool within the multidisciplinary approach.
As he explains, one of the great objectives of the unit is to intervene on particularly difficult-to-treat alterations, such as sleep disorders, one of the most frequent symptoms in patients with long COVID. The incorporation of NESA is also planned in combination with other interventions, such as therapeutic exercise, cardiorespiratory rehabilitation, cognitive treatment, manual therapy and invasive physiotherapy, in order to offer a more complete response.
Fernández de las Peñas also points out that one of the most relevant hypotheses around long COVID is the alteration of the autonomic nervous system. From this perspective, he considers that autonomic modulation can contribute to improving symptoms such as pain, anxiety, fatigue, gastrointestinal alterations, emotional instability and sleep problems, consolidating NESA as one of the unit’s therapeutic pillars.
