The worldwide assessment of separation of patients from ventilatory assistance (WEAN SAFE) ERS Clinical Research Collaboration

Successful weaning of patients from invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) represents a critical hurdle in the recovery process following severe respiratory failure [1–3] and is a key clinical challenge for intensive care unit (ICU) clinicians. Many of the serious complications of IMV are directly related to the duration of ventilation [4, 5]. Failure to successfully separate patients from IMV contributes directly or indirectly to poorer patient outcomes including, of course, longer duration of ventilation, longer length of ICU and hospital stay, and higher patient morbidity (dyspnoea, infection, muscle weakness) and mortality [6, 7]. Some patients spend a considerable amount of time in the process of being liberated from IMV. The identification and utilisation of approaches that improve the success of ventilator weaning are therefore of fundamental importance [8–10].
Source: European Respiratory Journal - Category: Respiratory Medicine Authors: Tags: Editorials Source Type: research