A 72 year old woman (55kg), Mrs X, with a history of severe emphysema and chronic bronchitis is intubated in the Emergency Department (ED) because of drowsiness associated with hypercarbia after her initial arterial blood gas analysis revealed:
- pH 7.219
- PC02 98mmHg
- PO2 48mmHg
- HC03 39mmol/l
- lactate 2.5 mmol/l
You are called to the ED to assess and admit this woman to ICU. The history from her daughter reveals that Mrs X lives independently but is limited by severe breathlessness with exercise.
At one week she remains ventilator dependent.
(d) What may interfere with her weaning and what may be done to facilitate weaning?
College Answer
A list may be best here:
- breathing system; demand valve resistance, humidifier, turbulence
- ETT; too small
- Airway; untreated asthma, secretions
- Lung interstitium; oedema, collapse, infection
- Musculoskeletal; weakness, hyperinflation, kyphoscoliosis
- Cardiovascular; low cardiac output state, ischaemia
- CNS drive; dugs, stroke,
The aim is to minimise the external work of breathing against inefficient ventilators and tubing, consider a tracheostomy which allows staged separation from the ventilator and improve all aspects of the patients general condition including nutrition, K/PO4/Mg, lung function and cardiovascular status.
Discussion
A systematic approach is in order.
- Airway:
- increased work of breathing agaisnt ventilator tubing
- Breathing:
- Ongoing bronchospasm
- ventilator-associated pneumonia
- mechanical disadvantages of having a hyperinflated chest cavity and kyphosis
- Circulation:
- Cardiac failure, resulting in poor respiratory exercise tolerance and pulmonary oedema
- Disability
- Delirium, resulting in increased sedation requirements
- Deconditioning of respiratory muscles
- critical illness polyneuropathy
- malnutrition resulting in weakness
In generic terms, this table lists the usual suspects:
Respiratory load |
Increased work of breathing
|
Cardiac load |
|
Neurological causes |
|
Musculoskeletal causes |
|
Metabolic disturbances |
|
References
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Fernández, Jaime, et al. "Adaptive support ventilation: State of the art review." Indian journal of critical care medicine: peer-reviewed, official publication of Indian Society of Critical Care Medicine 17.1 (2013): 16.
MacIntyre, Neil R., et al. "Management of patients requiring prolonged mechanical ventilation: report of a NAMDRC consensus conference." CHEST Journal 128.6 (2005): 3937-3954.
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Girard, Timothy D., and E. Wesley Ely. "Protocol-driven ventilator weaning: reviewing the evidence." Clinics in chest medicine 29.2 (2008): 241-252.
Funk, Georg-Christian, et al. "Incidence and outcome of weaning from mechanical ventilation according to new categories." European Respiratory Journal 35.1 (2010): 88-94.
Boles, Jean-Michel, et al. "Weaning from mechanical ventilation." European Respiratory Journal 29.5 (2007): 1033-1056.