Spontaneous breathing trial reduces mechanical ventilation weaning when compared with SmartCare™ ventilation

Mechanical ventilation (MV) weaning is commonly performed using a spontaneous breathing trial (SBT) with pressure support ventilation after a daily weaning screen [ 1 ]. Recently there has been increased interest in automatic weaning trials, using respiratory rate, tidal volume and ETCO 2 monitoring during SBT [ 1 , 2 ]. So far there is no clinical evidence comparing an automatic weaning trial with SBT. Our study's objective was to compare MV and weaning times between Automatic Weaning Ventilation System (SmartCare™/PS) and SBT groups.