07 Aug Noninvasive ventilation better for patients

UW School of Medicine and Public Health

Recently published results from a clinical trial showed that for critically ill adults needing tracheal intubation for emergency airway support, the method health care providers choose to use for providing supplemental oxygen before the intubation procedure affects the patient’s risk of hypoxemia, or potentially life-threatening low levels of blood oxygen.

Preoxygenation is the administration of supplemental oxygen prior to the start of a procedure to increase the content of oxygen in the lungs and decrease the risk of hypoxemia during the tracheal intubation procedure. In current clinical care, most critically ill adults receive preoxygenation using an oxygen mask.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health were involved in the Department of Defense-funded Pragmatic Trial Examining Oxygenation Prior to Intubation, or PREOXI, clinical trial, led nationally by Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The trial compared the two most commonly used methods to preoxygenate patients prior to tracheal intubation: preoxygenation with an oxygen mask and preoxygenation with noninvasive ventilation. The study showed that the noninvasive ventilation method, which supports breathing by using a tight-fitting respiratory mask connected to BPAP, or bilevel positive airway pressure, reduced the risks associated with the intubation procedure. Read more…