• Jae Hyung Roh, Ara Synn, Chae-Man Lim, Hee Jung Suh, Sang-Bum Hong, Jin Won Huh, and Younsuck Koh.
• Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, University of Ulsan, College of Medicine, Asan Medical Center, Seoul, South Korea.
• J Crit Care. 2012 Dec 1;27(6):549-55.

PurposeThe primary objective of this clinical trial of patients on mechanical ventilation was to determine if a weaning protocol implemented solely by nurses could reduce the weaning time relative to usual care (UC).Materials And MethodsThis study is a prospective, randomized, controlled trial conducted from January 2007 to January 2009 that compared protocol-based weaning (PBW) with UC. A total of 122 patients who received invasive ventilation in the medical ICU of the Asan Medical Center were examined. Nurses operated the mechanical ventilators according to a predesigned ventilator-weaning protocol for the PBW group (n = 61), and intensive care unit (ICU) physicians managed weaning in the UC group (n = 61).ResultsThere were no significant differences in the 2 groups at baseline. The number of patients who successfully discontinued mechanical ventilation was similar in the 2 groups (PBW, 46 patients, 75.4%; UC, 47 patients, 77.0%; P = .832). The weaning time was 47 hours (interquartile range, 24-168 hours) in the UC group and 25 hours (interquartile range, 5.75-134 hours) in the PBW group (P = .010).ConclusionsThe weaning protocol administered by the nurses was safe and reduced the weaning time from mechanical ventilation in patients who were recovering from respiratory failure.Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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