We know that vent weaning (or our term ‘vent-liberation’) is critical to a patient’s recovery and quality-of-life. Our renowned experts have developed a novel process for weaning spinal cord injury (SCI) patients from a ventilator.
Ventilator Weaning
We know that vent weaning (or our term ‘vent-liberation’) is critical to a patient’s recovery and quality-of-life. Our renowned experts have developed a novel process for weaning spinal cord injury (SCI) patients from a ventilator. This interdisciplinary team has collaborated to design a program that optimizes your breathing function. Together, we will provide the most innovative medical and rehabilitation treatments to speed your recovery.
Our Vent-liberation Program is a specialty in itself. Your team has decades of experience helping SCI patients breathe independently (completely, or in longer intervals). An Early, Proactive Start Our approach to vent liberation maximizes recovery because you are active at our inpatient rehabilitation hospital during the early, critical healing window. Using targeted-muscle training, we focus on strengthening all functioning muscles used for breathing. We combine strength building with therapies to help teach you how to breathe differently. We help you increase the efficiency (and decrease the work) of breathing. Your vent-weaning respiratory therapy is also combined with three hours of inpatient rehabilitation therapy every day (physical, speech or occupational). Focus on Gains We take every minute off the vent as a gain, and then build on each one. The ultimate goal is complete independence, but where achieving that level of independence is not possible, gaining valuable increments of vent-free breathing means fewer people are needed to help with daily tasks. At every step of the way, we teach you and your family about the process. We coach you as we train you how to breathe differently, and we answer questions — about equipment, process or feelings. What’s different about our Vent-liberation Program?
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Interdisciplinary Team We take a interdisciplinary approach to this protocol with our therapists, physicians and nursing; all are SCI specialists in their respective fields. Our goal is to assemble the best team for your specific needs and bring in additional experts as needed. Research-based Evaluation When you arrive, we micro-analyze the function of your respiratory muscles as part of a three-part evaluation. We look at how strong or weak these muscles are and let the results guide our therapy, equipment and timing of interventions.
What to Expect Developing strong, independent breathing is an important part of the overall rehabilitation process and likely looks different than the ventilator-weaning protocols commonly used in other facilities. Arrival & Initial Transitioning You may transfer to Shirley Ryan AbilityLab on full ventilator support where we will monitor patients for the first 48 hours to ensure that you are stable. This protocol may apply, even if you have been participating in ventilator- weaning sessions prior to transfer. After the initial monitoring period, we can start weaning you off the vent.
Airway Clearance Our respiratory therapists and/or speech therapists will add therapies to help open your airways and clear secretions. Your therapists will use devices such as CoughAssist, MetaNeb® and/or expiratory muscle- strength trainers to help strengthen your cough, clear your airways and reduce your risk of developing pneumonia. Positioning Our physical therapists and wheelchair seating specialists will get you out of bed, support your core body and work on helping you mobilize your chest wall. This positioning will optimize your ability to breathe more easily and independently. Alternatives For those SCI patients whose injuries make full independent breathing impossible, we may evaluate you for use of alternative therapies such as diaphragmatic pacers or noninvasive ventilation.
Please note that not all patients will be a fit for this program. Acceptance into this program will be approved after a full medical and respiratory evaluation, as well as development of a treatment plan.
For more information, please speak with your Shirley Ryan AbilityLab liaison or consulting physician.
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