Prolonged endotracheal intubation.

The advisability of prolonged oral or nasotracheal intubation is of continuing concern to physicians caring for patients requiring prolonged mechanical ventilatory assistance. Currently, in many health care centers, prolonged intubation is defined as being in excess of seven days. We treated a patient who required mechanical ventilatory assistance and in whom oral endotracheal intubation was maintained for two months without significant pathologic sequelae.