BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The II Brazilian Consensus Conference on Mechanical Ventilation was published in 2000. Knowledge on the field of mechanical ventilation evolved rapidly since then, with the publication of numerous clinical studies with potential impact on the ventilatory management of critically ill patients. Moreover, the evolving concept of evidence - based medicine determined the gr...

Neonatal respiratory failure consists of several different disease entities, with different pathophysiologies. During the past 30 years technological advances have drastically altered both the diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to newborns requiring mechanical assistance. Treatments have become both patient- and disease-specific. The clinician has numerous choices among the noninvasive and i...

BACKGROUND Prolonged invasive mechanical ventilation and reintubation are associated with adverse outcomes and increased mortality. Daily screening to identify patients able to breathe without support is recommended to reduce the length of mechanical ventilation. Noninvasive positive-pressure ventilation has been proposed as a technique to shorten the time that patients remain on invasive venti...

OBJECTIVE To describe our experience in managing patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. PATIENTS AND METHODS We analyzed the following variables in a group of 27 patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy: arterial blood gases, lung function before and after mechanical ventilation, oxygen saturation (measured by pulse oximetry), nocturnal PaCO2 (measured transcutaneously by capnography), h...

Young infants with bronchiolitis commonly present with apnea. Caffeine is effective in treating apnea of prematurity and has been used to treat apnea associated with bronchiolitis. To evaluate whether caffeine administration to infants presenting with apnea in the setting of bronchiolitis was associated with a decreased rate of endotracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation, compared to inf...

BACKGROUND Over one million patients are hospitalized each year with acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) in the US. Approximately 20% to 40% of them will develop acute cardiorenal syndrome type 1 (ACRS1) via multiple mechanisms. METHODS From January 2010 to December 2010, 197 patients were diagnosed with ADHF. Initial N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-pro BNP), creatinine leve...

Legionella pneumonia has a serious clinical course and requires treatment at intensive care unit. The need for mechanical ventilation is one of the determinants of prognosis. Mortality rate is higher in patients treated with mechanical ventilation. Non-invasive positive pressure ventilation (NPPV) provides mechanical ventilation without endotracheal intubation and decreases the incidence of ven...

The patient with acute heart failure may present with acute cardiogenic pulmonary edema (ACPE), a condition accompanied by severe respiratory distress, with crackles over the lung and orthopnea, and an O2 saturation usually < 90% on room air, prior to treatment. Non-invasive ventilation is the delivery of assisted ventilation without the need for endotracheal intubation and an invasive artifici...

MANAGEMENT OF RESPIRATORY FAILURE DURING ACUTE EXACERBATIONS OF COPD The purpose of managing respiratory failure/ supporting ventilation in acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is to prevent tissue hypoxia and control acidosis and hypercapnia while medical treatment works to maximise lung function and reverse the precipitating cause of the exacerbation. There are ...