Do in-hours or off-hours matter for extubating children in the pediatric intensive care unit?

Abstract Purpose Several studies have suggested worse outcomes for patients requiring medical care at night or on weekends. However, whether or not children should be extubated only during in-hours has not been studied yet. We sought to compare outcomes and complications of in-hours versus off-hours extubated patients. Methods We prospectively included all children receiving invasive mechanical ventilation (MV) in a pediatric intensive care unit. Off-hours extubations included patients who were extubated at nighttime (8:00 pm -7:59 am ) plus weekends/holidays whereas the in-hours extubations included regular daytime weekdays (Monday to Friday: 8:00 am -7:59 pm ). Results Of the 480 patients, 346 (72%) were extubated during in-hours period and 134 (28%) were extubated during off-hours. In-hours patients spent a longer time to have planned extubation and had a longer MV duration and pediatric intensive care unit stay compared to those extubated at off-hours. Kaplan–Meier curve showed that in-hours patients were more likely to have a longer time until the first extubation (log-rank test: P  = .006, HR: 5.05). Conclusion Patients extubated at off-hours had more favorable outcomes with similar complications rate compared with those extubated at in-hours. These results provide no support for delaying extubations until in-hours period. Further studies are required to confirm these findings.