Weaning failure of cardiac origin: recent advances

Abstract

This article is one of ten reviews selected from the Yearbook of Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine 2010 (Springer Verlag) and co-published as a series in Critical Care. Other articles in the series can be found online at http://ccforum.com/series/yearbook. Further information about the Yearbook of Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine is available from http://www.springer.com/series/2855.

Figure 1

Consequences of fluid transfer during hydrostatic pulmonary oedema. (a) As weaning-induced pulmonary edema is of a hydrostatic nature, its development is characterized by transfer of a hypo-oncotic fluid from the pulmonary capillary lumen toward the interstitial compartment and then the alveoli. Molecules like proteins cannot flow across the lung barrier owing to their high molecular weight. (b) After equilibrium is reached, weaning-induced pulmonary edema is thus characterized by a contraction of the vascular compartment and an augmentation in the plasma protein concentration.