-
Friday, 03/18/2011
A recent study compares simple, difficult and prolonged weaning in ICU patients
The manuscript has been published in the Intensive Care Medicine journal and has been reviewed by an editorial
The International Consensus Conference classified weaning into simple, difficult, and prolonged but its usefulness in a respiratory intensive care unit (ICU) had not yet been proved. From the 4th of March the study: “Predictors of prolonged weaning and survival during ventilator weaning in a respiratory ICU” is available online. This study aimed to compare the clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients from the three weaning groups and to assess predictors for prolonged weaning and survival.
This prospective study was conducted in the respiratory ICU of the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona and signed by the following authors of the Applied Research on Respiratory Diseases group (IAMR): Dr. Jacob Sellarés, Dr. Miquel Ferrer, Dr. Esteban Cano, Dr. Hugo Loureiro, Dr. Mauricio Valencia and Dr. Antoni Torres. The manuscript has been published in the Intensive Care Medicine journal and has been reviewed by an editorial.
This research demonstrated, in 181 mechanically ventilated patients in whom weaning had been initiated and divided into the three groups, that patients with simple and difficult weaning had similar characteristics and outcomes. Conversely, prolonged weaning was often associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, more complications, a longer stay and a lower survival. This work concludes that the classification in simple and difficult weaning has no relevant clinical consequences in a respiratory ICU, and confirms that patients with prolonged weaning had worst outcomes. Finally, hypercapnia at the end of spontaneous breathing seems to be a good predictor of prolonged weaning and a worse survival.