• Florian Bornitz, Ralf Ewert, Christine Knaak, Friederike Sophie Magnet, Wolfram Windisch, and Felix Herth.
• Department of Pneumology and Respiratory Critical Care Medicine, Thoraxklinik at Heidelberg University Hospital, German Center for Lung Research; Department of Pneumology, University of Witten/Herdecke, Kliniken der Stadt Köln gGmbH; Clinic for Internal Medicine B, Department of Pneumology/Infectiology, Greifswald University Hospital.
• Dtsch Arztebl Int. 2020 Mar 20; 117 (12): 205-210.

BackgroundEver more patients are being treated with invasive ventilation in the outpatient setting. Most have no access to a structured weaning process in a specialized weaning center. The personal burden on the patients is heavy, and the costs for the health care system are high.Methods61 patients who had been considered unfit for weaning were admitted to a weaning center. The primary endpoint was the number of patients who had been successfully weaned from the ventilator at six months. The comparison group consisted of health-insurance datasets derived from patients who were discharged from an acute hospital stay to receive invasive ventilation in the outpatient setting.Results50 patients (82%; 95% confidence interval [70.5; 89.6]) were successfully weaned off of invasive ventilation in the weaning centers, 21 of them (34% [23.8; 47]) with the aid of non-invasive ventilation. The survival rate at 1 year was higher than in the group without invasive ventilation (45/50, or 90%, versus 6/11,or 55%); non-invasive ventilation was comparable in this respect to no ventilation at all. The identified risk factors for weaning failure included the presence of more than five comorbidities and a longer duration of invasive ventilation before transfer to a weaning center.ConclusionIf patients with prolonged weaning are cared for in a certified weaning center before being discharged to receive invasive ventilation in the outpatient setting, the number of persons being invasively ventilated outside the hospital will be reduced and the affected persons will enjoy a higher survival rate. This would also spare nursing costs.

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