Intensive care medicine
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Intensive care medicine · Sep 2011
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter StudyCPAP for acute cardiogenic pulmonary oedema from out-of-hospital to cardiac intensive care unit: a randomised multicentre study.
Continuous 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. ⋯ Immediate 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.