This multicenter cohort study investigated the association between the use of norepinephrine at the time of extubation and the rate of reintubation within 7 days in critically ill patients, with a specific focus on those with obesity.

Researchers first analyzed data from a prospectively collected but retrospectively analyzed main cohort (3,186 patients) and then validated their findings using an independent multicenter randomized-controlled trial cohort (656 patients).

The primary analysis of the main cohort, which included 837 patients with obesity, found that 25% of these patients were extubated with a median norepinephrine dose of 0.097 mu//kg/min (normalized to real body weight).

Crucially, the study found no association between norepinephrine infusion at extubation and the rate of reintubation in either patients with or without obesity across both independent cohorts. This suggests that continuing norepinephrine infusion at the time of extubation does not increase the risk of reintubation for critically ill patients, regardless of their body weight status.

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