Published in:
01-02-2009 | Editorial
Non-invasive ventilation: how far away from the ICU?
Author:
Alexandre Demoule
Published in:
Intensive Care Medicine
|
Issue 2/2009
Login to get access
Excerpt
In less than 15 years, non-invasive mechanical ventilation (NIV) has become a major therapy of acute respiratory failure. The benefit of NIV is very well established in ventilatory failure resulting from acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) [
1,
2] as well as in acute cardiogenic pulmonary edema [
3]. Although the benefit of NIV in “
de novo” acute respiratory failure is less clear [
4], it is well demonstrated that NIV is an effective treatment of hypoxemic respiratory failure in immunocompromised patients [
5] [
6]. Indications for NIV are still increasing, especially in ventilator weaning [
7] and in the post-operative setting [
8]. Consequently, growing evidence of the benefits of NIV in multiple indications has led to a major increase in NIV use [
9,
10]. …