• Laurent Ducros, Damien Logeart, Eric Vicaut, Patrick Henry, Patrick Plaisance, Jean-Philippe Collet, Claire Broche, Papa Gueye, Muriel Vergne, David Goetgheber, Pierre-Yves Pennec, Vanessa Belpomme, Jean-Michel Tartière, Sophie Lagarde, Marius Placente, Marie-Laurence Fievet, Gilles Montalescot, Didier Payen, and CPAP collaborative study group.
• Département d'Anesthésie-Réanimation-SMUR, Hôpital Universitaire Lariboisière, AP-HP, 2, rue Ambroise Paré, 75010 Paris, France. lducros@free.fr
• Intensive Care Med. 2011 Sep 1;37(9):1501-9.

PurposeContinuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is a useful treatment for patients with acute cardiogenic pulmonary oedema (CPE). However, its usefulness in the out-of-hospital setting has been poorly investigated and only by small and single-centre studies. We designed a multicentre randomised study to assess the benefit of CPAP initiated out of hospital.MethodsA total of 207 patients with CPE were randomly allocated by emergency mobile medical units to receive either standard treatment alone or standard treatment plus CPAP. CPAP was maintained after admission to the intensive care unit (ICU). Inclusion criteria were orthopnoea, respiratory rate greater than 25 breaths/min, pulse oximetry less than 90% in room air and diffuse crackles. The primary end point was assessed during the first 48 h and combined: death, presence of intubation criteria, persistence of either all inclusion criteria or circulatory failure at the second hour or their reappearance before 48 h. Absence of all criteria defined successful treatment.ResultsCPAP was used for 60 min [40, 65] (median [Q1, Q3]) in the pre-hospital setting and 120 min [60, 242] in ICU and was well tolerated in all patients. Treatment was successful in 79% of patients in the CPAP group and 63% in the control group (p = 0.01), especially for persistence of inclusion criteria after 2 h (12 vs. 26%) and for intubation criteria (4 vs. 14%). CPAP was beneficial irrespective of the initial PaCO(2) or left ventricular ejection fraction.ConclusionImmediate use of CPAP in out-of-hospital treatment of CPE and until CPE resolves after admission significantly improves early outcome compared with medical treatment alone.

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