Characteristics and clinical outcomes
death, SBT failure, illness, extubation failure
EVENTS
At admission, we collected demographic data, comorbidities, primary cause of admission and severity of illness by Simplified Acute Physiology Score (SAPS 2) and Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA). Each day we collected ventilator setting, administration of neuromuscular blockers or sedative drugs and Ramsay sedation score. From the day of intubation until the first extubation or death, we counted events such as SBT failure (defined as the clinical impossibility to extubate the patient and re-establish initial ventilatory parameters), extubation and extubation failure (defined as re-intubation within 48 h or death), causes of extubation failure, tracheostomy and discharge from the ICU. Ventilator-free days were computed to 28 days. (Participants who required more than 28 days of ventilatory support or who died before 28 days were counted as 0.)