Kaohsiung Journal of Medical Sciences
Volume 24, Issue 2 , Pages 85-91, February 2008

Successful Weaning Predictors in a Respiratory Care Center in Taiwan

  • Pei-Hsuan Yang

      Affiliations

    • Department of Nursing, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
    • ,
  • Jen-Yu Hung

      Affiliations

    • Division of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
    • ,
  • Chih-Jen Yang

      Affiliations

    • Division of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
    • ,
  • Jong-Rung Tsai

      Affiliations

    • Division of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
    • ,
  • Tung-Heng Wang

      Affiliations

    • Division of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
    • Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
    • ,
  • Jung-Chen Lee

      Affiliations

    • Division of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
    • ,
  • Ming-Shyang Huang

      Affiliations

    • Division of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
    • Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
    • Corresponding Author InformationAddress correspondence and reprint requests to: Dr Ming-Shyang Huang, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, 100 Shih-Chuan 1st Road, Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan

Received 2 June 2007; accepted 1 October 2007.

Article Outline

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.

Key Words:  mechanical ventilator , respiratory care center , weaning

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PII: S1607-551X(08)70102-5

doi:10.1016/S1607-551X(08)70102-5

Kaohsiung Journal of Medical Sciences
Volume 24, Issue 2 , Pages 85-91, February 2008

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