Current opinion in critical care
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The aim of this review is to summarize available data, including the most recent ones, to help develop the best possible strategy regarding the use of tracheostomy in ICU patients requiring prolonged mechanical ventilation or who experience loss of airway-protecting mechanisms. ⋯ A step-by-step individualized approach based on the available evidence allows identifying the best strategy regarding the use of tracheostomy in ICU patients.
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Curr Opin Crit Care · Feb 2025
ReviewMonitoring and modulating respiratory drive in mechanically ventilated patients.
Respiratory drive is frequently deranged in the ICU, being associated with adverse clinical outcomes. Monitoring and modulating respiratory drive to prevent potentially injurious consequences merits attention. This review gives a general overview of the available monitoring tools and interventions to modulate drive. ⋯ Monitoring and modulating respiratory drive are feasible based on physiological principles presented in this review. However, evidence arising from clinical trials will help determine precise thresholds and optimal interventions.
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The purpose of this review is to examine the current state of the evidence, including several recent systematic reviews and meta-analyses, to determine if proportional modes of ventilation have the potential to hasten weaning from mechanical ventilation for adult critically ill patients, compared to pressure support ventilation (PSV), the current standard of care during the recovery and weaning phases of mechanical ventilation. ⋯ The current state of the evidence suggests that proportional modes may hasten weaning from mechanical ventilation, but larger, multicentre RCTS are needed to confirm these preliminary findings.
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Past observational studies have reported the association between patient-ventilator asynchronies and poor clinical outcomes, namely longer duration of mechanical ventilation and higher mortality. But causality has remained undetermined. During the era of lung and diaphragm protective ventilation, should we revolutionize our clinical practice to detect and treat dyssynchrony? ⋯ Most recent evidence on the topic suggests that synchrony between the patient and the mechanical ventilator is a critical element for protecting lung and diaphragm during the time of invasive mechanical ventilation or may reflect inadequate settings or sedation. Therefore, it is a complex situation, and clinical trials are still needed to test the effectiveness of keeping patient-ventilator interaction synchronous on clinical outcomes.
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Postextubation respiratory support treatment approaches, indications, and subgroups of patients with different responses to those therapies are rapidly changing. Planning optimal therapy in terms of choosing devices, timing of application and selecting settings with the goal of minimizing extubation failure is becoming a challenge. This review aims to analyze all the available evidence from a clinical point of view, trying to facilitate decision making at the bedside. ⋯ Planning postextubatin respiratory support must consider the risk for failing and the presence of some clinical conditions favoring noninvasive ventilation.Extubation can be safely accelerated by modifying screening criteria and spontaneous breathing trial settings, but there is room to increase the role of postextubation noninvasive respiratory support for this indication, always keeping in mind the dangers of delaying a needed intubation.