AsynchronyPrevalence of Patient Ventilator Asynchrony in Trauma and Surgical Patients

This is a prospective observational study to determine the prevalence of patient/ventilator asynchrony in a cohort of trauma and surgical patients. There will be two 20-minute periods of observation. The first will be during the first 24 hours of mechanical ventilation and the second will take place when the patient is being weaned from the ventilator and is triggering half or more of all ventilator breaths. The study team will use computer-captured waveforms to determine the proportion of all breaths that are asynchronous. This proportion is the primary outcome variable of the study. The study hypothesis is that the proportion of asynchronous breaths is higher in patients with higher levels of sedation, as measured by the Richmond Agitation-Sedation Scale (RASS) and the Confusion Assessment Methods for the Intensive Care Unit (CAM-ICU). This hypothesis will be tested using repeated measures analysis of variance.