ABSTRACT
The prognosis after successful weaning from mechanical ventilation varies widely, depending on the age of the patient, the underlying disease process, and the presence of other complicating factors. Diseases such as ARDS are associated with high hospital mortality (up to 65%), but similar survival rates at hospital discharge, 1 year, and 3 years84. In a study of 100 patients receiving mechanically assisted ventilation in a community hospital, all patients under the age of 50 years who survived the ICU stay survived to leave the hospital and were alive at 1 year85. However, in the subset of older patients (i.e. age =70 years), hospital survival was only 49% and 1 year survival was only 27%. Patients with COPD who experience acute ventilatory failure have been estimated to have a 57% 1 year and a 51% 2 year survival rate85. Although long -term survival prediction helps inform the clinician’s understanding of average outcomes, these data must be applied with circumspection to individual patients and with attention to the patient’s overall progress to date.
