Factors associated with failure to wean children from mechanical ventilators

Background Patients with failure to wean from mechanicalventilators in 48 hours have increased risk of morbidity, howeveronly a few protocols can be used for children.Objective To assess possible factors associated with failure towean from mechanical ventilators in the pediatric intensive careunit (PICU).Methods This cross sectional study performed from June 2011 toJune 2012 had 124 subjects with 79 patients who were successfullyweaned and 45 patients who fail to be wean ed from mechanicalventilators. Data was analyzed by 2x2 contingency tables. Resultswith P value <0.05 were further analysis by logistic regressionmultivariate analysis.Results Factors associated with failure to wean from mechanicalventilators were abn ormal electrolyte (P= 0.001) and acidbase status (P <0.001), lower ratio between tidal volume(TV)/inspiration time (IT) (P<0.001), lower mechanical load(P <0.001), and longer duration of mechanical ventilator use(P<0.001). Multivariate analyses revealed that the significantrisk factors for failure to wean were TV/IT (OR6.0; 95%CI3.5 to7.5; P= 0.001) , mechanical load (OR 11.5, 95%CI 10.3 to 15.5;P= 0.002), and duration of mechanical ventilator use (OR 12.5;95%CI 8.5to 14.9; P=0.026).Conclusions Lower ratio of TV /IT and mechanical load, as wellas longer duration of ventilator use are factors associated withfailure to wean from a mechanical ventilator.