Evidence-Based Guidelines for Weaning and Discontinuing Ventilatory Support*

TL;DR: By reducing the depth and the duration of the sedation, invasive mechanical ventilation in intensive care units (ICUs) has been significantly shortened and the benefit of such strategies is now clearly demonstrated and could be further increased by the use of automated weaning modes such as ASV, Intellivent and Smartcare.

TL;DR: This update summarizes key changes made to the protocol for the Frequency of Screening and Spontaneous Breathing Trial (SBT) Technique Trial—North American Weaning Collaborative (FAST-NAWC) trial since the publication of the original protocol and provides a refined SAP for the FAST- NAWC trial.

TL;DR: The patient is a 28-year-old man whose acute onset of shortness of breath and vague chest pain began shortly after completing a 10-hour auto trip, and the physician is very apprehensive about his symptoms.

TL;DR: You are back where you were in the previous article1 on diagnostic tests: in the library studying an article that will guide you in interpreting ventilation-perfusion (V/Q) lung scans.

TL;DR: Daily screening of the respiratory function of adults receiving mechanical ventilation, followed by trials of spontaneous breathing in appropriate patients and notification of their physicians when the trials were successful, can reduce the duration of mechanical ventilation and the cost of intensive care and is associated with fewer complications than usual care.

TL;DR: A prospective, randomized, multicenter study involving 546 patients who had received mechanical ventilation for a mean of 7.5±6.1 days and who were considered by their physicians to be ready for weaning, randomly assigned to undergo one of four weaning techniques.