Panel discussion on weaning from mechanical ventilation: lessons learned from WEAN SAFE

Weaning from mechanical ventilation represents a crucial step in the recovery process following endotracheal intubation in patients with acute respiratory failure. Delayed weaning from mechanical ventilation is associated with adverse clinical outcome, increases the risk of dying and increases length of stay in the intensive care unit. Weaning duration affects health care resource use, whether direct financial costs or the opportunity for other patients of consumption of finite critical care capacity.

WEAN SAFE is an international collaboration among 50 countries and 500 ICU’s around the globe to investigate the epidemiology, practice and outcome of weaning from mechanical ventilation.

WEAN SAFE is an ERS co-funded clinical research collaboration and the first results of this collaboration investigating almost 6000 patients have been published very recently (Pham et al, Lancet RM, 2023). These results are highly relevant from clinical, scientific and patient perspective. A webinar would be an ideal format to discuss the findings and implications of the first WEAN SAFE results.

Educational aims

• To define weaning from invasive mechanical ventilation in endotracheally intubated and tracheostomized patients.
• To provide an overview of the outcome of patients weaning from invasive mechanical ventilation.
• To provide an overview of modifiable and non-modifiable factors affecting weaning outcome
• To discuss variations in weaning practices

Topics

• WEAN SAFE: a brief introduction to a long journey – Giacomo Bellani
• Why is it important to reduce duration of mechanical ventilation – Margaret Herridge
• Highlights from WEAN SAFE – John Laffey
• Panel discussion: Challenges in ventilator weaning – Laurent Brochard, Giacomo Bellani, Margaret Herridge, John Laffey

Target audience:

• Pulmonologists
• Intensivists
• Residents/fellows
• Nurses
• Allied health care professionals
• Clinical scientists
• Physiologists
• Students

Format

• The webinar will start with an introduction lecture and an introductory lecture on weaning from mechanical ventilation.
• Thereafter a panel discussion will follow to discuss novel insights from WEAN SAFE (with MCQ/opinion from participants)
• During/after the panel discussion, there will be a patient perspective.

Learning outcomes

After following this webinar, participants should be able to:

• Define the weaning process and list criteria to initiate weaning from mechanical ventilation
• Evaluate the epidemiology of weaning
• Understand factors that can be modified to optimize weaning outcome.

CME credit

An application for accreditation of this webinar has been made to the European Board for Accreditation in Pneumology (EBAP) for 1 CME credit per 1-hour attendance. If accredited, the CME credit will be granted upon attendance of at least 60 minutes during the live webinar only.

What is a webinar?

A webinar closely simulates a lecture-based teaching experience. The speaker can interact with the audience, just as in a classroom setting. During the webinar, you will be asked to share your opinion on issues related to the topic using interactive polls.

All participants will be able to hear the lecturer and see the slides throughout the presentation. As a participant you will be able to pose questions or discuss ideas with the other participants via the text chat facility and the speaker will respond to the questions via the microphone.

Login guidelines

More information will be communicated in due course.

• Please log in to the webinar 20 minutes before it is scheduled to commence. If you have any technical difficulties whilst trying to log in or during the session please contact e-learning@ersnet.org.
• Check Central European Time.
• To achieve the best quality, we recommend to avoid downloading anything from the internet during your connection to the lecture and stopping all other programmes.
• Please also ensure that your audio settings are not set to mute and adjust the volume to a comfortable level.