© 2005 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd & British Thoracic Society
EDITORIAL
Weaning from mechanical ventilation
Streamlining weaning: protocols and weaning units
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr A K Simonds
Consultant in Respiratory Medicine, Clinical and Academic Department of Sleep and Breathing, Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust, Sydney Street, London SW3 6NP UK; a.simonds@rbh.nthames.nhs.uk
Use of weaning protocols and specialised weaning units for patients who fail to wean from mechanical ventilation
Keywords: weaning; mechanical ventilation; weaning units
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Discontinuation of ventilation is estimated to take up to 40% of the total duration of ventilatory support, and around 3–6% of patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) require a prolonged course of mechanical ventilation (MV).1 Patients being liberated from ventilatory support therefore occupy a significant number of ICU beds and have a major impact on healthcare resources. There have been several recent key developments in the field of weaning—the use of weaning protocols, ventilatory strategies to reduce the need for invasive ventilation and facilitate successful extubation, and the creation of regional long term ventilator units. All have the potential to affect weaning outcome, but how valuable are they in practice?
In 1996 Ely and colleagues2 showed that the implementation of a standardised protocol of daily trials of spontaneous breathing performed by nursing staff reduced the total duration of MV from 6 to 4.5 days,
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Thorax 2005 60: 175a.[Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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