Weaning Algorithm for Mechanical VEntilation (WAVE Study): A Randomised Control Trial Comparing an Open-loop Decision Support System Versus Routine Care for Weaning From Mechanical Ventilation in the Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit

Patients admitted to the intensive care unit typically receive invasive mechanical ventilatory support when they are critically ill. Whilst mechanical ventilation is a life-saving intervention, it can also lead to deleterious consequences and cause lung damage (known as ventilator-associated lung injury) if not implemented carefully. Hence, reducing the duration of mechanical ventilation should reduce complications such as ventilator-associated lung injury, ventilator-acquired pneumonia, respiratory and skeletal muscle wasting, and patient discomfort, leading to decreasing mortality and economic costs etc. Importantly, prolonged weaning perpetuates these complications which further increase the duration of mechanical ventilation thereby creating a viscous cycle leading to greater morbidity and mortality.

The availability and education of intensive care unit (ICU) staff are important considerations in minimizing the duration of mechanical ventilation through weaning protocols. It is common practice that the attending physician decides upon patient's therapy and ventilatory management according to recommendations. This usually occurs as part of medical rounds. In addition, nurses often manage the weaning of patients from mechanical ventilation either by following attending physicians' instructions or local guidelines protocols. Such protocol-directed, nurse-driven weaning has been shown to reduce the duration of mechanical ventilation. However, it has been shown that the quantity and quality of nursing are important factors if duration is to be reduced.

Several decision support systems have been developed to help select optimal mechanical ventilator strategies. Those finding their way into routine clinical practice have typically been based on clinical guidelines or rules rather than detailed physiological description of the individual patient. A recent Cochrane review of weaning trials with these systems concluded that use of these systems may reduce duration of weaning, but pointed out that many of these trials are based on patients that are 'simple to wean'. Such patients are usually less complex, without lung pathology, and ventilated for less than 48 hours. However, there is a need to develop and validate protocolised systems that utilize a more detailed physiological description of individual patients to aid in the management of complex patients ventilated for longer durations.

The Beacon Caresystem is a model-based decision support system using mathematical models tuned to the individual patient's physiology to advise on appropriate ventilator settings. Personalised approaches using individual patient description may be particularly advantageous in complex patients, including those who are difficult to mechanically ventilate and wean; precisely those where previous systems have not been sufficiently evaluated. The Beacon Caresystem is a commercial version of the system previously known as INVENT, which has been retrospectively evaluated in post-operative cardiac patients and patients with severe lung disease, and prospectively evaluated in advising on the correct level of inspiratory oxygen. Furthermore, studies are near completion showing that the system provides safe and appropriate advice on inspired oxygen, respiratory frequency, tidal volume, pressure support/control and positive end expiratory pressure (PEEP) in a wide variety of patients ranging from patients with severe respiratory failure to patients close to extubation (unpublished data). However, previous and ongoing studies with the Beacon Caresystem have focused on safety and efficacy of advice under limited time periods, and have not focused on weaning from mechanical ventilation.

The core of the Beacon Caresystem is a set of physiological models including pulmonary gas exchange, acid-base chemistry, lung mechanics, and respiratory drive. The Beacon Caresystem tunes these models to the individual patient such that they describe accurately current measurements. Once tuned, the models are used by the system to simulate the effects of changing ventilator settings. The results of these simulations are then used to calculate the clinical benefit of changing ventilator settings by balancing the competing goals of mechanical ventilation. For example, an increased inspiratory volume will reduce an acidosis of the blood while detrimentally increasing lung pressure. Appropriate ventilator settings therefore imply a balance between the preferred value of pH weighted against the preferred value of lung pressure. A number of these balances exist, and the system weighs these, calculating a total score for the patient for any possible ventilation strategy. The system then calculates advice as to changes in ventilator settings so to as improve this score. The Beacon Caresystem functions as an "open loop" system. This means that the advice provided by the system is presented to the clinician. The ventilator settings are then changed by the clinician, and the patient's physiological response to these changes is automatically used by the system to re-tune the models and repeat the process of generating new advice.