A regional weaning center for patients requiring mechanical ventilation: an 18-month experience

This report reviews the outcomes of patients on mechanical ventilation admitted to a new regional weaning center. We reviewed the records of 47 patients admitted to the weaning center over an 18-month period. All patients had a tracheostomy, were ventilator dependent, and considered difficult to wean by their referring physician. The mean days of ventilator dependence prior to transfer to our facility was 86 days, with a range of 21 to 332 days. Patients were admitted to a 12-bed weaning unit at our chronic disease and rehabilitation hospital and assessed by a multi-disciplinary team of physicians, nurses, and therapists. Thirty patients were successfully weaned from prolonged mechanical ventilation and subsequently discharged from our unit. These data indicate that the majority of difficult to wean patients admitted to our regional weaning center were successfully liberated from prolonged mechanical ventilation.