A simple, noninvasive method of ventilation can restore adequate blood oxygen levels and reduce mortality in postsurgical patients who suffer acute respiratory failure after they are removed from mechanical ventilation.
Patients often need mechanical ventilation if muscle relaxants have been given as part of general anesthesia. But if acute respiratory failure occurs after the ventilatory tube is removed, reintubation can increase mortality sevenfold. So researchers at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf, Germany, examined the use of nasal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP) with 20 consecutive postsurgical patients who met criteria for reintubation.
In nCPAP, air from a compressor is forced through a nose mask into the patient's nasal passages, airway, and lungs. Within 1 hour, nCPAP substantially increased systemic blood oxygen to adequate levels in all 20 patients. Because of complications unrelated to oxygenation, two patients had to be reintubated. Both later died.
"Avoiding endotracheal intubation and mechanical . . . [Full Text of this Article]
