guidelines on ventilator discontinuation have been published,
allowing clinicians to organize their practice, butneed of standardization of best-care-practices, the
evaluation and application of respiratory care protocols
have dramatically expanded. Particularly, mechanical ventilation
weaning protocols have been studied since 1989,2
and the number of publications has grown ever since.3 In
fact, based on a survey of directors of respiratory therapy
departments, published in 2012, 96.2% of surveyed hospitals
(n 663) responded that they relied on protocols for
ventilator management.4