BACKGROUND Prolonged weaning from mechanical ventilation has a major impact on ICU bed occupancy and patient outcome, and has significant cost implications.There is evidence in patients around the period of extubation that helium-oxygen leads to a reduction in the work of breathing. Therefore breathing helium-oxygen during weaning may be a useful adjunct to facilitate weaning. We hypothesised t...

Weaning from mechanical ventilation involves the reduction or withdrawal of ventilatory support in proportion to the patient's ability to sustain spontaneous ventilation. Protocolized weaning has been shown to reduce weaning duration; however, its weakness lies in the reliance on human intervention. Automated weaning is theoretically superior to manual weaning because of its ability to rapidly ...

Weaning failure can be caused by myocardial ischaemia during the switch from mechanical to spontaneous ventilation. We report ischaemic left ventricular failure and ischaemic mitral insufficiency during weaning. Angiography showed that the coronary vessels were stenosed. Transluminal angioplasty made weaning possible. We conclude that acute ischaemic mitral insufficiency may contribute to cardi...

OBJECTIVE A systematic review of weaning and extubation for pediatric patients on mechanical ventilation. DATA SELECTION Pediatric and adult literature, English language. STUDY SELECTION Invited review. DATA SOURCES Literature review using National Library of Medicine PubMed from January 1972 until April 2008, earlier cross-referenced article citations, the Cochrane Database of Systematic...

Background and Objectives: This review aims to explore the use of inspiratory muscle training (IMT) in patients with mechanical ventilation (MV). The topics were related to its effect on the duration of MV or weaning, respiratory symptoms or lung function, inspiratory muscle strength (IMS) or endurance, functional ability, and quality of life (QoL).  Methods: Articles published in the last 10 ...