Proportional Assist Ventilation for Minimizing the Duration of Mechanical Ventilation: The PROMIZING Study (PROMIZING)

Mechanical ventilation is the most common form of life support and is required by most patients who receive treatment in intensive care units. Although mechanical ventilation is essential in such situations, it can induce weakness of the respiratory muscles which may lead to prolonged dependence on the ventilator. Prolonged dependence on mechanical ventilation is associated with worse patient outcomes and high cost to the healthcare system.

Pressure support ventilation (PSV) is the most frequently used mode of ventilation for assisting breathing of patients during the recovery phase of acute respiratory failure.  Proportional assist ventilation (PAV) is a newer method of mechanical ventilation which delivers assistance to breathe in proportion to the patient’s effort. This method may preserve respiratory muscle function while supporting the patient’s need for respiratory assistance.

Several studies have shown short term advantages of PAV over PSV, including improved patient-ventilator synchronization, improved adaptability to changes in patient effort, and improved sleep quality. There are no studies showing superiority of either method for clinically important outcomes.

In our study, we will compare PAV to PSV using a randomized controlled trial. Our study is designed to demonstrate that PAV results in a reduction of time on mechanical ventilation of at least 1.5 days. This will be an important result for patients and potentially produce large cost savings for the Canadian healthcare system and across the globe.

For more information about this trial, please visit clinicaltrials.gov (NCT# NCT02447692)