Role Of Transthoracic Ultrasound in Predicting Post-extubation Distress During Successful Weaning

Establishing the correct time to extubate mechanically ventilated patients is a crucial issue in the critical care practice. Both premature and delayed extubation prolong the duration of mechanical ventilation and the intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay and increase morbidity and mortality. Therefore, accurate prediction of post-extubation distress and the early diagnosis of the causes responsible for failure of a trial of pressure support ventilation or a trial of totally unsupported respiration are of paramount importance to improve the outcome of mechanically ventilated patients in the ICU.

The Investigators hypothesized that the use of an integrative thoracic ultrasound assessment, encompassing bedside respiratory, and diaphragm sonographic data, could accurately predict post-extubation distress in patients who succeeded in a pressure support ventilation trial. In addition, The Investigators suggest that the use of appropriate analytical methods, that is, machine-learning methods, could permit the evaluation of the specific impact of respiratory and diaphragm sonographic data on the final estimation of a likelihood of post-extubation distress .