OBJECTIVE Ambulation of patients with acute respiratory failure may be unnecessarily limited in the acute intensive care setting. We hypothesized that ambulation of patients with acute respiratory failure would increase with transfer to an intensive care unit where activity is a key component of patient care. DESIGN Pre-post cohort study of respiratory failure patients. SETTING Adult intens...

OBJECTIVE We sought to examine trends in the race-specific incidence of acute respiratory failure in the United States. DESIGN Retrospective cohort study. SETTING We used the National Hospital Discharge Survey database (1992-2007), an annual survey of approximately 500 hospitals weighted to provide national hospitalization estimates. PATIENTS All incident cases of noncardiogenic acute res...

Acute respiratory failure is a dreaded and life-threatening event that represents the main reason for ICU admission. Respiratory events occur in up to 50% of hematology patients, including one-half of those admitted to the ICU. Mortality from acute respiratory failure in hematology patients depends on the patient's general status, acute respiratory failure etiology, need for mechanical ventilat...

Human metapneumovirus (HMPV) is a common virus that can cause respiratory problems ranging from mild upper respiratory tract disease to respiratory failure requiring mechanical support. Here, we report a case of a 32-month-old male with a previous history of asthma, who developed respiratory failure two weeks after onset of cough and rhinorrhea and required extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (...

OBJECTIVES a) To describe the introduction of noninvasive means to provide positive-pressure ventilation in acute respiratory failure; b) to describe the physiologic response to noninvasive ventilation; c) to review the current published literature on using noninvasive ventilation in patients with acute hypercapnic and/or hypoxemic respiratory failure; d) to describe the technique of applying m...

Muscular dystrophy is a group of inherited myopathies characterised by progressive skeletal muscle wasting, including of the respiratory muscles. Respiratory failure, i.e. when the respiratory system fails in its gas exchange functions, is a common feature in muscular dystrophy, being the main cause of death, and it is a consequence of lung failure, pump failure or a combination of the two. The...

BACKGROUND Respiratory failure is a serious complication that can adversely affect the hospital course and survival of multiply injured patients. Some studies have suggested that delayed surgical stabilization of spine fractures may increase the incidence of respiratory complications. However, the authors of these studies analyzed small sets of patients and did not assess the independent effect...

OBJECTIVE To analyze risk factors for respiratory failure with tetraplegia after acute traumatic cervical spinal cord injury (CSCI). PATIENTS AND METHODS Total 180 tetraplegia cases after acute traumatic CSCI treated in Shanghai Changzheng Hospital from 2001 to 2011 were reviewed retrospectively and the frequency of respiratory failure in these patients were analyzed against the factors inclu...

Hypercapnic respiratory failure is common in advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and is usually treated by nasal ventilation. Not all patients requiring such ventilation can tolerate it, with anxiety and phobia influencing their reaction, along with treatment failure. We report the case histories of six patients with hypercapnic respiratory failure who were at risk of death due to re...

The Maugeri Respiratory Failure (MRF-28) and Severe Respiratory Insufficiency (SRI) questionnaires were recently developed to assess health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with chronic respiratory failure, although not exclusively in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the MRF-28 and SRI are reliable and vali...