PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Azeredo, Leandro M AU - Nemer, Sérgio N AU - Barbas, Carmen SV AU - Caldeira, Jefferson B AU - Noé, Rosângela AU - Guimarães, Bruno L AU - Caldas, Célia P TI - The Integrative Weaning Index in Elderly ICU Subjects AID - 10.4187/respcare.04524 DP - 2017 Mar 01 TA - Respiratory Care PG - 333--339 VI - 62 IP - 3 4099 - http://rc.rcjournal.com/content/62/3/333.short 4100 - http://rc.rcjournal.com/content/62/3/333.full AB - BACKGROUND: With increasing life expectancy and ICU admission of elderly patients, mechanical ventilation, and weaning trials have increased worldwide.METHODS: We evaluated a cohort with 479 subjects in the ICU. Patients younger than 18 y, tracheostomized, or with neurologic diseases were excluded, resulting in 331 subjects. Subjects ≥70 y old were considered elderly, whereas those <70 y old were considered non-elderly. Besides the conventional weaning indexes, we evaluated the performance of the integrative weaning index (IWI). The probability of successful weaning was investigated using relative risk and logistic regression. The Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test was used to calibrate and the C statistic was calculated to evaluate the association between predicted probabilities and observed proportions in the logistic regression model.RESULTS: Prevalence of successful weaning in the sample was 83.7%. There was no difference in mortality between elderly and non-elderly subjects (P = .16), in days of mechanical ventilation (P = .22) and days of weaning (P = .55). In elderly subjects, the IWI was the only respiratory variable associated with mechanical ventilation weaning in this population (P < .001).CONCLUSIONS: The IWI was the independent variable found in weaning of elderly subjects that may contribute to the critical moment of this population in intensive care.