Extubation criteria in infants and children.

Predictors of extubation outcome attempt to provide objective data that may help to modify clinical decision making at the bedside. This article reviews the subjective and objective extubation readiness predictors tested in the pediatric medical literature. An understanding of the predictive capacity of the extubation criteria is vital for the critical care physician. No test is likely to predict the extubation outcome for an individual patient with absolute certainly. Therefore, weaning and extubation practices in the pediatric critical care setting remain variable, and teh development of standardized protocols for extubation remains controversial. Perhaps future well-designed, large-scale trials will provide more accurate predictors of extubation readiness to guide the safe and timely extubation of the pediatric patient.