Overview, Management Strategy of Prolonged and Long-Term Mechanical Ventilation in Children

Prolonged and long-term mechanical ventilation are challenging to study since the terms have been used interchangeably to describe children that require mechanical ventilation beyond the acute phase. For example, long-term ventilation, chronic ventilator support, dependent ventilator support, and home ventilation are terms that are used to describe patients requiring some type of mechanical method for respiratory support after discharge from the hospital [1-4]. On the other hand, prolonged ventilation is generally used to describe patients in the intensive care unit that need ventilatory support beyond an expected period of time [5]. Thus, it is crucial to try to clarify the differences between both.