• Priya Bolikal, John R Bach, and Miguel Goncalves.
• Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-New Jersey Medical School, University Hospital, Newark, NJ 07103, USA.
• J Spinal Cord Med. 2012 May 1;35(3):170-4.

BackgroundIn 1997, guidelines were developed for the management of high-level ventilator-dependent patients with spinal cord injury who had little or no ventilator-free breathing ability (VFBA). This article describes the three categories of patients, the decannulation criteria, and the successful decannulation of four patients with no VFBA and electrophrenic/diaphragm pacing, using these criteria.MethodCase series.ConclusionLack of VFBA in patients with high-level spinal cord injury does not mandate tracheostomy or electrophrenic/diaphragm pacing.

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