TOPIC: Critical Care TYPE: Medical Student/Resident Case Reports INTRODUCTION: Average volume-assured pressure support (AVAPS) is a comparatively newer modality of non-invasive ventilation that incorporates the properties both volume and pressure-control ventilation. Though its benefits were well documented in chronic respiratory failure, studies illustrating usage acute failure are still insub...

Ten patients with stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and hypercapnic respiratory failure were randomly submitted to intermittent negative pressure ventilation (INPV) 6 h per day for 5 consecutive days by either a cuirass or pneumo wrap ventilator. The effects were assessed by measurements of spirometry, blood gases, maximal inspiratory (MIP) and expiratory (MEP) pressures, 12 m...

The modern approach (ie, long-term oxygen therapy, rehabilitation, and home mechanical ventilation) has contributed to the survival of patients with chronic respiratory diseases, such as COPD.1 Every day, physicians have to face end-of-life decisions in exacerbations occurring in end-stage patients when endotracheal intubation and/or tracheostomy may be neither appropriate nor accepted (do not ...

For patients experiencing acute respiratory failure due to a severe exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), noninvasive positive pressure ventilation has been shown to significantly reduce mortality and hospital length of stay compared to respiratory support with invasive mechanical ventilation. Despite continued improvements in the administration of noninvasive ventilatio...