Nicotine Replacement Therapy in the Intensive Care Unit

Inclusion Criteria: Any patient admitted to the intensive care unit must meet all of the following criteria to be eligible for the study:

• Critically ill active smoking patient
• Being mechanically ventilated
• Start of study product application within 48 hours after ICU admission
• Expected to be mechanically ventilated for more than 48 hours after start of application of the study product

Exclusion Criteria: Any patient admitted to the intensive care unit meeting one or more of the following criteria is not eligible for the study:

• Patient younger than 18 years
• Patient or next of kin denying research authorization
• Pregnancy
• Breastfeeding women
• History of chronic dementia or psychosis
• (Acute) neurologic disease on admission, possibly confounding study objectives (TBI, stroke, ICH/SAH, seizures, meningitis, encephalitis, intracranial tumor)
• Patient receiving any form of NRT within two weeks before admission
• Patient not understanding Dutch
• Patient with acute myocardial infarction
• Patient with severe cardiac arrhythmia
• Patient with unstable or deteriorating angina pectoris
• Patient with generalized acute or chronic skin diseases interfering with NRT absorption
• Patient with severe hearing deficiency
• Moribund patient
• Patient with known hypersensibility to nicotine or components of the transdermal therapeutic system
• Patient with known hypersensibility to patches
• Patient participating in an other study