Early physical and occupational therapy in mechanically ventilated, critically ill patients: a randomised controlled trial.

Background: Long-term complications of critical illness include intensive care unit (ICU)-acquired weakness and neuropsychiatric disease. Immobilisation secondary to sedation might potentiate these problems. We assessed the efficacy of combining daily interruption of sedation with physical and occupational therapy on functional outcomes in patients receiving mechanical ventilation in intensive care.

Excessive tidal volume from breath stacking during lung-protective ventilation for acute lung injury.

Rationale: Low tidal volume ventilation strategies for patients with respiratory failure from acute lung injury may lead to breath stacking and higher volumes than intended.

Objective: To determine frequency, risk factors, and volume of stacked breaths during low tidal volume ventilation for acute lung injury.

Design, Setting, And Patients: Prospective cohort study of mechanically ventilated patients with acute lung injury (enrolled from August 2006 through May 2007) treated with low tidal volume ventilation in a medical intensive care unit at an academic tertiary care hospital.