Mechanical Ventilation: Beyond the ICU

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Mechanical Ventilation: What Is It?

Mechanical ventilation is a method for using machines to help patients breathe when they are unable to breathe sufficiently on their own.

Most often, mechanical ventilation is used for a few days to help a patient breathe during a serious illness. This type of breathing support is usually done in an intensive care unit—an ICU for short.

Sometimes patients still can't breathe on their own after the acute illness is over, despite efforts to restore spontaneous breathing. Patients may no longer need to be in the ICU but still require mechanical ventilation because of an extended need for the breathing assistance of the ventilator.

Other patients may have stable, longer-term (chronic) conditions that make them unable to breathe on their own.

Due to a variety of reasons, including the cost of hospital care and the patient's quality of life, for the patient who is dependent on a ventilator for breathing assistance, it may be better to receive mechanical ventilation at home or at a nonhospital institution offering specialized nursing or rehabilitation services.

Over time, with the professional support of physicians and respiratory therapists, some ventilator-assisted individuals are able to become less dependent on the ventilator and breathe on their own for substantial portions of every day. Other patients have medical conditions that require 24-h mechanical ventilation for many months or years, or even for a lifetime.

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