• Thomas Luiz, Marc Kumpch, Joachim Grüttner, Christian Madler, and Tim Viergutz.
• Clinic for Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine I, Westpfalz Hospital, Kaiserslautern, Germany tluiz@westpfalz-klinikum.de.
• In Vivo. 2016 Mar 1; 30 (2): 133-9.

BackgroundAcute respiratory failure is a frequent cause of emergency medical missions. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy could be particularly beneficial, avoiding risks associated with intubation and invasive ventilation. Hardly any data exist from Germany on this matter.Patients And MethodsCPAP therapy with the Boussignac system as additional measure was introduced in cases of acute cardiogenic pulmonary edema (ACPE) or decompensated chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in a physician-supported emergency medical services system (EMS).ResultsA total of 57 patients, 35 with ACPE and 22 with COPD, received CPAP. Oxygen saturation improved from 81.6% to 94.8%, and respiration rate from 26.9/min to 18.9/min (p<0.001). Seven patients (12.2%) needed secondary intubation [COPD: one patient; ACPE: six patients, including three with acute coronary syndrome (ACS)].ConclusionIn physician-supported EMS, CPAP using the Boussignac system is an effective additional measure for ACPE or COPD. For causal ACS, the risk of therapy failure increases.Copyright © 2016 International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. John G. Delinassios), All rights reserved.

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