[Weaning from mechanical ventilation: the pneumologist's perspective].

Weaning from mechanical ventilation plays a key-role in modern intensive care medicine: about 40% of all ventilated patients suffer from difficult/prolonged weaning causing about 50% of the total stay on the intensive care unit (ICU). Severe chronic airway, lung and thoracic disorders, neuromuscular diseases and morbid obesity cause respiratory muscle insufficiency and result in respiratory failure with prolonged weaning. In Germany, pneumologists have a wide ranging expertise with this patient cohort and established weaning centers over the past 25 years. This article illustrates the classification, the most important therapeutical strategies and organizational aspects when caring for patients under (long-term) mechanical ventilation from the pneumologist's perspective.