The Long-Term Survival of Successfully Weaned Prolonged Mechanical Ventilation Patients

BACKGROUND: There are rare articles in the literature that addressed long-term survival in successfully weaned prolonged mechanical ventilation patients. How are the long-term outcomes of these successfully weaned prolonged mechanical ventilation patients? Our objective is to explore this issue in depth in this study and serve as the basis for us to provide suggestions for patients in long-term care of the successfully weaned prolonged mechanical ventilation patients. METHODS: We investigated the clinical variables, long-term survival, cause of death, receipt or not of tracheostomy and analyzed the factors association with survival in successfully weaned prolonged mechanical ventilation patients. RESULTS: We can further gather long-term follow-up data on successfully weaned prolonged mechanical ventilation patients, 243 patients. The 1-, 2-, 3-, 4- and 5-year survival rates of successfully weaned PMV patients were 32.5%, 28.0%, 24.9%, 23.9%, and 21.3%, respectively. The factors between successfully weaned prolonged mechanical ventilation patients who died in the ward and those who were discharged from the hospital 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 ≥4 comorbidities and a lower percentage of undergoing tracheostomy. The factors between successfully weaned discharged prolonged mechanical ventilation 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 ≥4 comorbidities, and a lower percentage of undergoing tracheostomy. CONCLUSION: The receipt or not of tracheostomy is the key influential factor of long-term survival of successfully weaned prolonged mechanical ventilation patients. Tracheostomy should be attempted in suitable patients for improving long-term outcomes in successfully weaned prolonged mechanical ventilation patients.