title: The long and difficult road to better evaluation of outcomes of prolonged mechanical ventilation: not yet a highway to heaven.
abstract: The study conducted by Cox and coworkers included in this issue of Critical Care demonstrates that prolonged mechanical ventilation (MV; defined as MV for 21 days or longer) is more specific than Diagnosis Related Group 541/542 as a marker of resource utilization, hospital costs and potentially ineffective care. These patients also had greater 1-year mortality and lower functional ability than patients who had received MV for 48 to 96 hours, despite having better baseline functional status. However, predictors of mortality and long-term functional outcomes that are reliable and accurate at the level of the individual patient remain to be identified.
authors.affiliation: Service de Réanimation Médicale, Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France. alain.combes@psl.aphp.fr
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Combes
mesh_terms: D016638:Critical Illness / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D012121:Respiration, Artificial; D013997:Time Factors