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Computer-based vent weaning decreases length of stay

Respiratory Care Weekly, October 19, 2006

In comparing physician-based vent weaning to computer-based protocols, a study in the second October 2006 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine shows that computers help reduce length of ventilation and length of stay. The study, which was conducted in five medical-surgical intensive care units (ICU) in Barcelona, Brussels, Créteil, Geneva, and Paris, showed that a computerized system reduced the duration of mechanical ventilation from 12 days to 7.5 days and cut patients' ICU stay from 15.5 days to 12 days.

Furthermore, the total number of ventilator-related complications such as reintubation, self-removal from ventilator assistance, need for noninvasive ventilation, mechanical ventilation longer than 21 days, and tracheotomy (surgically opening the trachea), was reduced by 30% in the computer-driven weaning group, according to the Journal.

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