Steroids and extubation: the potential for clinical trials.

Intubation and mechanical ventilation are necessary adjuncts to airway management of the patient with inhalation injury. However, the ultimate goal of intubation is ultimate removal from mechanical ventilation. Extubation of the inhalation injury patient is often challenging due to the increased work of breathing, multiple operative interventions, and increased metabolic rate that often accompanies inhalation injury. The next two papers in the compendium describe two very different, yet potentially applicable, adjuncts to extubation of the burn patient: steroids and noninvasive positive pressure ventilation.