No more T-Piece

Remember how we used to hook up intubated patients to a t-piece connected to wide bore tubing and an oxygen source to see if a patient was ready to be weaned? Well T-piece no more.


Most microprosessor ventilators allow for you to place the patient in CPAP, and with minimal pressure support to make up for the resistance of the narrow tubing, you can allow the patient to spontaneously breathe, while also having the advantage of alarms to warn you if the patient stops breathing, or is breathing too fast, or otherwise is pooping out.


Our protocol recommends that we use a pressure support of 5 for ETT less than 8, and 0 for ETT greater than 8 during our spontaneous breathing trials (SBT). T-pieces are no longer recommended and rarely used.


Our anesthesiologists still, on occasion, use T-Pieces to make sure a patient is ready to be extubated. That is the only place T-Pieces are still used at Shoreline Medical.


Does your hospital still use T-Pieces to wean?