Pneumologie
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The essential cause for long-term mechanical ventilation with unweanability from respirator is chronic failure of the inspiratory muscles. Principally two different causes exist for chronic respiratory failure: Primary pulmonary diseases with overload or load imbalance of primarily uncompromised respiratory muscles, and neuromuscular diseases with a significant decrease in respiratory muscle capacity. Intermittent nocturnal ventilation (INV) leads to recovery by unloading the respiratory pump. ⋯ Only 4 out of 18 patients continued to be long-term ventilated invasively via tracheostomy. The remaining patients (25 out of 43) showed normoventilation at daytime during the ensuing inpatient phase so they did not need INV. At the time of the patients' referral to our ICU, there was no predictive value regarding the ultimate indication for INV after weaning from respirator.