Nutritional support for successful weaning in patients undergoing prolonged mechanical ventilation

Successful weaning from ventilators not only improves the quality of life of patients, but also reduces medical expenses. The aim of this study was to explore the association between nutritional provision and successful ventilator weaning. In this retrospective study data from the Respiratory Care Center of Chung Shan Medical University Hospital between October, 2017 and July, 2019 on patient characteristics, amount of nutrition delivered, and clinical outcomes were retrieved. A total of 280 ventilated patients were enrolled and divided into successful extubation and failed weaning groups. There were 178 males (63.6%) and 102 females (36.4%) with a mean age of 67.3 ± 16.9 years. The successful extubation group consisted of patients who tended towards ideal body weight during the weaning process (BMI 23.9 ± 5.0 versus 22.7 ± 4.8 kg/m 2 , p