Chest Physiotherapy in Tracheotomized Patients

Positive expiratory pressure (PEP) breathing is common for treatment of different lung diseases and can increase lung volume and increase elimination of secretion from the airways. Today there is no evidence whether the treatment is effective or not for patients in the intensive care unit. The purpose of this study is to evaluate if PEP breathing can increase oxygenation for patients in the intensive care unit during weaning from the ventilator after acute respiratory distress syndrome. PEP breathing will be applied on the tracheal cannula for 15 minutes. Measure of the PEP effect will be done before, during and for 20 minutes after PEP breathing.