The long term survival of successfully weaned prolonged mechanical ventilation patients
Abstract Background Over six years, five hundred and seventy-four patients were admitted to the respiratory care center. Three hundred and ninety-one patients were successfully weaned from the ventilator. How is the long term outcome of these successfully weaned prolonged mechanical ventilation patients? Very few articles were discussing the long term outcome of successfully weaned prolonged mechanical ventilation patients. We will explore this issue in-depth in this article. Methods We analyzed retrospective data from successfully weaned prolonged mechanical ventilation patients to investigate the clinical variables, discharged status, long term survival, the cause of death, end-of-life decisions. Results We can further gather long term follow-up data on 243 patients. The factors between patients who died in the ward and those who survived ≥1 year revealed the poorer survival of patients who died in the ward was due to a higher percentage of end-stage renal disease comorbidity, a higher percentage of malignant comorbidity, higher percentage of ≥ four comorbidities and a higher percentage of signed do-not-resuscitate / do-not-intubate orders. The factors between patients who survived <1 year and those who survived ≥1 year revealed the poorer survival of patients who survived <1 year was due to older age, a higher percentage of signed do-not-resuscitate / do-not-intubate orders. That 81 patients (33.3%) who signed a do-not-resuscitate / do-not-intubate orders, indicates that, at most, 66.7% of survivors were willing to receive mechanical ventilation again. Conclusion The end-of-life decision (signed do-not-resuscitate / do-not-intubate orders) is one of the major influence factors of long term survival of successfully weaned prolonged mechanical ventilation patients. In all, 81 patients (33.3%) in our study signed do-not-resuscitate / do-not-intubate orders, meaning that, at most, 66.7% of survivors were willing to receive mechanical ventilation again.