Everybody is fond of weaning people off the ventilator--slowly decreasing the respiratory rate or pressure support. But does it make any difference?
No.
What makes a difference is DAILY spontaneous breathing trials, ideally paired with sedation vacations. In fact, the lecturer I went to today suggested that weaning people off the ventilator might be counterproductive because it could tire people out for their spontaneous breathing trial.
So if you want to wean someone off of a ventilator, go ahead. Just don't tire them out, and make sure that they have their spontaneous breathing trial every day.
No comments:
Post a Comment