Register for email alerts and news feeds:
This journal | BMJ Group
rss
Emergency Medicine Journal 2008;25:190-194; doi:10.1136/emj.2007.049072
© 2008 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and the College of Emergency Medicine.

REVIEW

Non-invasive ventilation and continuous positive pressure ventilation in emergency departments: where are we now?

R Bolton1, A Bleetman2

1 The University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
2 Heart of England NHS Trust, Birmingham, UK

Correspondence to:
Dr A Bleetman, Department of Emergency Medicine, Heart of England NHS Trust, Birmingham B9 5SS, UK; bleetman{at}enterprise.net

ABSTRACT

A number of emergency departments have introduced non-invasive positive pressure ventilation (NIV) and continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) for patients presenting with acute respiratory failure. It is thought that early non-invasive respiratory support will avoid the need for invasive ventilation in many cases. This literature review studied current knowledge of NIV and CPAP in the acute setting with the aim of creating simple guidelines for hospitals initiating early non-invasive ventilatory support in emergency departments. NIV is effective in reducing intubation and mortality rates in patients with acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and CPAP is effective in reducing mortality in patients with cardiogenic pulmonary oedema, especially when implemented early. NIV and CPAP were also found to be effective in some other causes of acute respiratory failure. There is a role for non-invasive respiratory support in emergency departments.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Primary survey
Geoff Hughes
Emerg. Med. J. 2008 25: 187. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This Article

Services
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with

Register for free content

The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.

Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.

 

The journal is co-owned by and the official journal of College of Emergency Medicine

Official journal of British Association for Immediate Care: BASICS, Faculty of Pre-Hospital Care, Irish Society for Immediate Care and Swedish Society for Emergency Medicine: SweSEM

Emergency Medicine Jobs

Emergency Medicine Jobs