• Jun Duan, Xiaokui Tang, Shicong Huang, Jinwei Jia, and Shuliang Guo.
• Department of Respiratory Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, People's Republic of China.
• J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2012 May 1;72(5):1271-5.

BackgroundNoninvasive ventilation (NIV), a technique widely used in intensive care units (ICUs), eliminates the need for many patients in respiratory failure to undergo intubation. However, few articles have described how to wean patients from NIV. Herein, we put forward a protocol to be performed by respiratory therapists to wean patients from NIV.MethodsA prospective, randomized, controlled trial was performed in a respiratory ICU of a teaching hospital. Respiratory therapists screened patients daily. In the protocol-directed weaning group, the weaning attempt was initiated according to the protocol. In the physician-directed weaning group, the weaning attempt was initiated according to physicians' orders.ResultsAt randomization, patients in the two groups had similar clinical characteristics. A total of 73 patients were successfully weaned from NIV (37 in the protocol-directed group and 36 in the physician-directed group). The preponderance of them (64%) was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients. Compared with physician-directed weaning, protocol-directed weaning reduced the duration of NIV (4.4 ± 2.5 days vs. 2.6 ± 1.5 days, respectively, p < 0.001) and the duration of the ICU stay (8.1 ± 5.5 days vs. 5.8 ± 2.7 days, respectively, p = 0.02). In the protocol-directed group, the successful weaning rate was 57%, 27%, 13%, 0%, and 3% on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th days after randomization, respectively.ConclusionsProtocol-directed weaning reduces the duration of NIV and the duration of the ICU stay.Level Of EvidenceII.

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