Monaldi archives for chest disease = Archivio Monaldi per le malattie del torace / Fondazione clinica del lavoro, IRCCS [and] Istituto di clinica tisiologica e malattie apparato respiratorio, Università di Napoli, Secondo ateneo
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Although the majority of mechanically-ventilated patients can be rapidly transferred to spontaneous breathing, a substantial minority of them develop difficulties during weaning attempts, prolonging the length of hospital stay and increasing the risk of complications. Inversely, excessively early weaning and extubation increase the morbidity of ventilated patients. ⋯ Many of the classical criteria used are frequently inaccurate in predicting the outcome of weaning, and new criteria have been described and designed to be more objective and discriminant in predicting the suitability of weaning. The authors make a critical review and analyse the limitations of these different criteria.