Fig. 1.

There was a positive correlation between the number of days a patient was intubated and the number of days from intubation to commencing oral intake for both (a) the endotracheal tube group (R² = 0.84, p < 0.01) and (b) the tracheostomy group (R² = 0.31, p < 0.01). The mean (standard deviation) time from extubation to oral intake (5.2 (2.3) days) or tracheostomy insertion to oral intake (14.7 (6.5) days) was not associated with duration of intubation for either (c) the endotracheal tube group (R² = 0.01, p = 0.63) or (d) the tracheostomy group (R² = 0.01, p = 0.44). (e) For the tracheostomy group, there was no correlation between the number of days on sedation and the period of time from stopping sedation to starting oral intake (R² = 0.00, p = 0.58).