As compared with conventional ventilation, the protective strategy was associated with improved survival at 28 days, a higher rate of weaning from mechanical ventilation, and a lower rate of barotrauma in patients with the acute respiratory distress syndrome. Protective ventilation was not associated with a higher rate of survival to hospital discharge.

clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01374022.

Ventilation with low tidal volumes is associated with a lower risk of development of pulmonary complications in patients without acute respiratory distress syndrome.

ObjectiveThe number of patients who require prolonged mechanical ventilation increased during the last decade, which generated a large population of chronically ill patients. This study established the incidence of prolonged mechanical ventilation in four intensive care units and reported different characteristics, hospital outcomes, and the impact of costs and services of prolonged mechanical ventilation patients (mechanical ventilation dependency ≥ 21 days) compared with non-prolonged mechanical ventilation patients (mechanical ventilation dependency < 21 days).MethodsThis study was a multicenter cohort study of all patients who were admitted to four intensive care units. The main outcome measures were length of stay in the intensive care unit, hospital, complications during intensive care unit stay, and intensive care unit and hospital mortality.ResultsThere were 5,287 admissions to the intensive care units during study period. Some of these patients (41.5%) needed ventilatory support (n = 2,197), and 218 of the patients met criteria for prolonged mechanical ventilation (9.9%). Some complications developed during intensive care unit stay, such as muscle weakness, pressure ulcers, bacterial nosocomial sepsis, candidemia, pulmonary embolism, and hyperactive delirium, were associated with a significantly higher risk of prolonged mechanical ventilation. Prolonged mechanical ventilation patients had a significant increase in intensive care unit mortality (absolute difference = 14.2%, p < 0.001) and hospital mortality (absolute difference = 19.1%, p < 0.001). The prolonged mechanical ventilation group spent more days in the hospital after intensive care unit discharge (26.9 ± 29.3 versus 10.3 ± 20.4 days, p < 0.001) with higher costs.ConclusionThe classification of chronically critically ill patients according to the definition of prolonged mechanical ventilation adopted by our study (mechanical ventilation dependency ≥ 21 days) identified patients with a high risk for complications during intensive care unit stay, longer intensive care unit and hospital stays, high death rates, and higher costs.

IntroductionMechanical ventilation (MV) with high tidal volumes may induce or aggravate lung injury in critical ill patients. We compared the effects of a protective versus a conventional ventilatory strategy, on systemic and lung production of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-8 (IL-8) in patients without lung disease.MethodsPatients without lung disease and submitted to mechanical ventilation admitted to one trauma and one general adult intensive care unit of two different university hospitals were enrolled in a prospective randomized-control study. Patients were randomized to receive MV either with tidal volume (VT) of 10 to 12 ml/kg predicted body weight (high VT group) (n = 10) or with VT of 5 to 7 ml/kg predicted body weight (low VT group) (n = 10) with an oxygen inspiratory fraction (FIO2) enough to keep arterial oxygen saturation >90% with positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) of 5 cmH2O during 12 hours after admission to the study. TNF-α and IL-8 concentrations were measured in the serum and in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) at admission and after 12 hours of study observation time.ResultsTwenty patients were enrolled and analyzed. At admission or after 12 hours there were no differences in serum TNF-α and IL-8 between the two groups. While initial analysis did not reveal significant differences, standardization against urea of logarithmic transformed data revealed that TNF-α and IL-8 levels in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid were stable in the low VT group but increased in the high VT group (P = 0.04 and P = 0.03). After 12 hours, BALF TNF-α (P = 0.03) and BALF IL-8 concentrations (P = 0.03) were higher in the high VT group than in the low VT group.ConclusionsThe use of lower tidal volumes may limit pulmonary inflammation in mechanically ventilated patients even without lung injury.Trial RegistrationClinical Trial registration: NCT00935896