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Evidence summaries

Noninvasive Positive Pressure Ventilation as a Weaning Strategy for Intubated Adults with Respiratory Failure

Use of noninvasive positive pressure ventilation directly after extubation may decrease mortality and length of stay in an intensive care unit when weaning COPD patients from invasive respirator treatment. Level of evidence: "C"

A Cochrane review [Abstract] 1 included 16 studies with a total of 994 subjects with predominantly chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Compared to the invasive positive pressure ventilation (IPPV) strategy, noninvasive positive pressure ventilation (NPPV) significantly decreased mortality in trials enrolling exclusively participants with COPD (RR 0.36, 95% CI 0.24 to 0.56) whereas in trials enrolling mixed populations the benefits for mortality were less significant (RR 0.81, 95% CI 0.47 to 1.40). NPPV significantly reduced weaning failure (RR 0.63, 95% CI 0.42 to 0.96) and ventilator-associated pneumonia (RR 0.25, 95% CI 0.15 to 0.43); shortened length of stay in an intensive care unit (mean difference [MD] -5.59 days, 95% CI -7.90 to -3.28) and in hospital (MD -6.04 days, 95% CI -9.22 to -2.87); and decreased the total duration of ventilation (MD -5.64 days, 95% CI -9.50 to -1.77) and the duration of endotracheal mechanical ventilation (MD -7.44 days, 95% CI -10.34 to -4.55) amidst significant heterogeneity. Noninvasive weaning also significantly reduced tracheostomy (RR 0.19, 95% CI 0.08 to 0.47) and reintubation (RR 0.65, 95% CI 0.44 to 0.97) rates. Noninvasive weaning had no effect on the duration of ventilation related to weaning.

Comment: The quality of evidence is downgraded by study quality (unclear allocation concealment) and by heterogeneity.

References

Primary/Secondary Keywords