Successful weaning predictors in a respiratory care center in Taiwan.
Respiratory care centers (RCCs) provide effective care for patients who have been in intensive care and have undergone prolonged mechanical ventilation. Between February 2002 and December 2005, 891 patients who met the admission criteria of RCCs were referred to our RCC at Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital in southern Taiwan for attempted weaning. We recorded demographic and clinical data, including variables identified previously as predictive of weaning success among highly selected populations. The common causes of respiratory failure at RCC admission were neuromuscular disease (29.2%), pneumonia (27.5%), cancer (18.0%), cardiovascular disease (10.1%), sepsis (5.7%) and post-surgery (1.6%). The percentage of patients successfully weaned was 40.2%, while 59.8% remained dependent on ventilators. In a stepwise multivariate logistic regression analysis, significant predictors of weaning success included neuromuscular disease (odds ratio [OR], 2.64), APACHE II score (OR, 0.93) and blood urea nitrogen level at RCC admission (OR, 0.99). The results could be helpful in the accreditation of medical care quality and may provide guidelines for future research and education programs.
Yang
Pei-Hsuan
PH
Department of Nursing, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Hung
Jen-Yu
JY
Yang
Chih-Jen
CJ
Tsai
Jong-Rung
JR
Wang
Tung-Heng
TH
Lee
Jung-Chen
JC
Huang
Ming-Shyang
MS
D018806:APACHE; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001806:Blood Urea Nitrogen; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D015300:Ventilator Weaning