Weaning from invasive mechanical ventilation is challenging for the ICU team in terms of shortening time of ventilation via endotracheal tube in order to improve the patient's prognosis by early extubation. Thereby prolonged mechanical ventilation (> 14 days), which is associated with risk of tracheotomy and prolonged weaning, shall be avoided. This article will give an overview about weaning categories, causes for weaning failure and strategies to overcome this problem. In the last part we will cover concepts in the process of prolonged weaning including discharge management with invasive mechanical ventilation.