Respiratory care
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For hypoxemic respiratory failure, the frontline treatment is supplemental oxygen. Since ARDS was first described, mechanical ventilation via an endotracheal tube (invasive ventilation) has no doubt saved many patients. During the 1990s, noninvasive ventilation was found to be superior to invasive ventilation for exacerbations of COPD, acute cardiogenic pulmonary edema, and acute respiratory failure in patients who were immunocompromised. ⋯ While NIV interfaces add to anatomic dead space, HFNC delivery actually decreases dead space. Although the use of HFNC in adults who are critically ill has been dramatically increasing, the advantages and disadvantages of each element have not been well discussed. For now, although functional differences among the different HFNC systems seem to be minor, to avoid adverse clinical events, it is essential to know the advantages and disadvantages of each element.
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Noninvasive ventilation is well established as the ventilatory modality of first choice to treat acute or acute-on-chronic hypercapnic respiratory failure in patients with COPD by improving dyspnea and gas exchange, avoiding the need for intubation, and reducing morbidity and mortality rates. Noninvasive ventilation also offers benefit for patients with COPD and with accompanying pneumonia or with hypercapnic respiratory failure in postextubation, postoperative, and do not intubate settings. ⋯ A newer form of noninvasive ventilatory assistance, high-flow nasal cannula, has emerged in recent years as a technique to not only oxygenate effectively but also to improve ventilatory efficiency and reduce the work of breathing in patients with severe COPD. Results of recent studies indicate that high-flow nasal cannula therapy can benefit some patients with acute hypercapnic respiratory failure, either instead of or in combination with noninvasive ventilation, but more study is needed.
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Noninvasive respiratory support at the end of life is controversial, although it is becoming increasingly common. Supplemental oxygen is widely prescribed for palliative care and may help with hypoxemic respiratory failure. Noninvasive ventilation has a well-established evidence-based role in the management of respiratory failure due to exacerbations of COPD and cardiogenic pulmonary edema. ⋯ High-flow nasal cannula oxygen therapy is a new strategy for which there is evidence to support its use for hypoxemic respiratory failure. However, any benefit of the use of high-flow nasal cannula oxygen therapy in the palliative setting is unknown at this time. This review examined evidence relating to the use of noninvasive respiratory support at the end of life.
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For more than 40 years, noninvasive ventilation has been the first-line preferred therapy for acute-on-chronic conditions, such as COPD and cardiogenic pulmonary edema. The use of noninvasive ventilation in the treatment of hypoxemic respiratory failure, however, has been met with mixed results associated with higher risks of intubation (failure of therapy) and with higher risks of mortality. The purpose of this review was to describe the current evidence and important considerations when patients with hypoxemic respiratory failure are managed with noninvasive ventilation.