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Background & Aim: Decreasing mechanical ventilation and early extubation after cardiac surgery are the important scientific subjects that their clinical and financial benefits had been demonstrated. There are some variables that are associated with extubation time so, determination of them will help nurses to plan appropriate care aimed at doing an early and safe extubation.

Methods & Materials: The purpose of this descriptive-analytic study was to determine whether any preoperative variable had a significant effect on extubation time after CABG. The research was conducted in one of hospitals in Tehran city. In this retrospective study, data were collected by reviewing of files of eligible patients who were undergoing CABG from December 2003 to March 2005. 93 files reviewed by convenience sampling method. Collecting data tool was a checklist consists of three parts: 1) demographic characteristics 2) health and disease history 3) physiologic status. Samples divided into two groups: early and delayed extubation (>6h). Data analysis was performed by descriptive methods, chi square, fisher exact test and regression analysis.

Results: Mean and standard deviation of duration time of intubation was 7.19±3.00 with range of 3-18.25 hours in all samples. Totally 43% of subjects extubated in ≤6h and 57% of them in >6h. Age was the only preoperative variable that was found to be statistically significant to extubation time (p=0.01).

Conclusion: According to our findings age is associated with postoperative intubation time after CABG. It means older patients need to be under long mechanical ventilation. So, nurses should make a decision on extubation in older patients, carefully.

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Background & Aim: Sedation after coronary artery bypass graft surgery can prevent the side effects of the treatment. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of controlled sedation based on the Richmond scale on the duration of mechanical ventilation and the changes of blood pressure in patients following coronary artery bypass graft surgery.
Methods & Materials: In a single blind randomized clinical trial (IRCT2017050517693N2) from June to August 2017, a convenience sample of 80 patients after coronary artery bypass graft surgery, hospitalized in the intensive care unit of Heshamat Center, Rasht, were selected and randomly allocated into two groups (each group=40). Sedative drug dose was determined using the Richmond agitation sedation scale in the intervention group and determined routinely (based on hemodynamic changes) in the control group. Pain as a confounding variable was evaluated using CPOT tool. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and Chi-square, Mann-Whitney, independent t-test and repeated measures ANOVA using the SPSS software version 22.
Results: The mean age of samples was 59.89±7.53 and 66.7% of them were male. There was a significant difference between two groups in the duration of mechanical ventilation (P<0.04), the changes of patients’ blood pressure (P<0.05), need for a vasopressor drug (P<0.05) until extubation and need for the first administration of sedatives (P<0.001).
Conclusion: Utilizing the Richmond tool can reduce the patient’s dependence on ventilator and changes in arterial pressure. Also, using this tool can prevent unnecessary and early administration of sedative and vasopressor drugs in patients.