• Bernd Schönhofer, Wolf Harms, Rolf Lefering, Stefan Suchi, and Dieter Köhler.
• Krankenhaus Kloster Grafschaft, Zentrum für Pneumologie, Beatmungs- und Schlafmedizin, Schmallenberg. bernd.schoenhofer@t-online.de
• Med Klin. 2008 May 15; 103 (5): 275-81.

PurposeTo compare the Therapeutic Intervention Scoring System (TISS) 28 in difficult to wean patients before and after transfer to a weaning center.Patients And MethodsUsing TISS-28, the authors investigated the difference between regular intensive care units (ICUs) and the respiratory ICU (RICU) of their hospital in difficult to wean patients after long-term mechanical ventilation (MV). Special emphasis was placed on the appropriateness of TISS-28 to cover the specific weaning activities. 63 tracheotomized patients ventilated for more than 14 days were included.ResultsIn total, 15.9% of patients were not weaned, 20.6% of population was successfully weaned with noninvasive ventilation (NIV), and 63.5% of patients was successfully weaned without NIV. The transfer of patients from other ICUs to a weaning facility resulted in a significant reduction of total TISS-28 from 29.5 to 23.8 points (p<0.001) on average.ConclusionThe high weaning success rate in a specialized facility is associated with a significant reduction of TISS-28 scores. The use of TISS-28 in a weaning center for patients with prolonged MV to measure workload does not adequately mirror the efforts by physicians, nurses, physiotherapists, and other health-care personnel.

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