title: Patient-ventilator interaction in the long-term acute-care hospital.
abstract: Optimizing patient-ventilator synchrony is essential in managing patients who require prolonged mechanical ventilation in the long-term acute-care hospital. Inadequate synchrony can increase work of breathing, cause patient discomfort, and delay both weaning and general rehabilitation. Achieving optimal synchrony in the long-term acute-care hospital depends on a number of factors, including adjusting ventilator settings in response to improving lung function; adjusting psychotropic medications to control delirium, anxiety, and depression; and ensuring there is a well positioned correctly sized tracheostomy tube in the airway. The purpose of this review is to provide an update on issues pertinent to patient-ventilator synchrony in the LTACH setting.
authors.affiliation: Tufts Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Maher
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ghamloush
authors.forename: Heidi H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: O'Connor
authors.forename: Alexander C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: White
mesh_terms: D001007:Anxiety / Q000517:prevention & control; D003693:Delirium / Q000517:prevention & control; D003863:Depression / Q000517:prevention & control; D006801:Humans; D008134:Long-Term Care; D012121:Respiration, Artificial; D012131:Respiratory Insufficiency / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D012307:Risk Factors; D014139:Tracheostomy; D015300:Ventilator Weaning; D012122:Ventilators, Mechanical; D014939:Work of Breathing / Q000502:physiology