Invasive Ventilation

You may need mechanical ventilation (a type of invasive ventilation) if you're unable to breathe on your own. Most critically ill patients in intensive care need mechanical ventilation for some period. It's considered a life-support technology.

Invasive ventilation usually requires that you're intubated or have a tracheostomy (tube surgically placed through your windpipe).

Newborns in the Level 2 Nursery also may need mechanical ventilation.

What You Need to Know

• To be removed from invasive ventilation, your vital signs and hemodynamics (blood flow) must remain stable.
• Use of mechanical ventilation for a long time is associated with nosocomial pneumonia, cardiac-associated morbidity and death.
• Baptist Health uses a mechanical ventilation protocol for patients age 16 and older, to wean them from the ventilator as soon as possible. This protocol helps to decrease pneumonia rates associated with mechanical ventilation.