Respiratory care
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The extubation period is one of the most challenging aspects for intensive care teams. Timely recognition of the return to spontaneous ventilation is essential for reducing costs, morbidity, and mortality. Several weaning predictors were studied in an attempt to evaluate the outcome of removing ventilatory support. The purpose of this study was to analyze the predictive performance of the modified integrative weaning index (IWI) in the extubation process. ⋯ We concluded that modified IWI, similar to other extubation predictors, does not accurately predict extubation failure.
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The battery life (BL) of portable home ventilator batteries is reported by manufacturers. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of ventilator mode, breathing frequency, PEEP, and leaks on the BL of 5 commercially available portable ventilators. ⋯ The BL of home ventilators depends on the ventilator settings. BL is not affected by the ventilator mode (VC-CMV or PSV) or the addition of PEEP. BL decreases with an increase in breathing frequency and during leaks with a PSV mode, whereas leaks increase the duration of ventilator BL during VC-CMV.