High-Flow Oxygen Therapy Following Tracheostomy

Many patients with Respiratory Failure undergo tracheostomy due to difficulty weaning from mechanical ventilation. A component of weaning a patient with tracheostomy usually involves the administration of oxygen via High Humidity device. There are two major ways of administering oxygen via High Humidity to patients. They include low flow high humidity; delivered at less than or equal to 10LPM or high-flow humidity, delivered at greater than 10LPM. There is not a currently accepted standard of practice for how to administer oxygen high humidity to patients who receive a tracheostomy due to respiratory failure. Both Low and High Flow high humidity devices are used routinely by health care facilities nationwide. Therefore, the investigators plan to perform a crossover study in both a medicine and surgical Intensive Care Unit to determine which type of oxygen High Humidity therapy should be preferentially utilized. Patients in one Intensive Care Unit will start off with Low Flow high humidity while the alternate unit will start with Hi Flow high humidity. After one half of the required sample size is accrued the investigators will cross over the two ICUs to the alternate type of oxygen High Humidity device. No other respiratory practices will change during the conduct of this trial.

Inclusion criteria

• Mechanically ventilated patients who receive tracheostomy

Exclusion criteria

• Non-English speaking and pregnancy