The use of the BIPAP® biphasic positive airway pressure system in acute spinal cord injury

In recent years there has been increasing demand on our Intensive Care Unit (ICU) facilities, mainly due to improved resuscitation techniques in the pre-hospital management of spinal cord injury (SCI). This has resulted in an increasing number of high tetraplegic and paraplegic patients with respira...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Spinal cord Vol. 36; no. 7; pp. 481 - 484
Main Authors:	TROMANS, A. M, MECCI, M, BARRETT, F. H, WARD, T. A, GRUNDY, D. J
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	London Nature Publishing 01-07-1998
Subjects:	Acute Disease Adult Aged Biological and medical sciences Female Humans Injuries of the nervous system and the skull. Diseases due to physical agents Injury Severity Score Intensive Care Units Male Medical sciences Middle Aged Positive-Pressure Respiration - instrumentation Positive-Pressure Respiration - methods Respiratory Distress Syndrome, Adult - etiology Respiratory Distress Syndrome, Adult - therapy Spinal Cord Injuries - complications Traumas. Diseases due to physical agents Treatment Outcome Human Nervous system diseases Spinal cord Respiratory disease Acute Artificial ventilation Trauma Intensive care unit Treatment Respiratory failure Positive pressure Central nervous system disease Spinal cord disease
Online Access:	Get full text
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

Description
Summary:	In recent years there has been increasing demand on our Intensive Care Unit (ICU) facilities, mainly due to improved resuscitation techniques in the pre-hospital management of spinal cord injury (SCI). This has resulted in an increasing number of high tetraplegic and paraplegic patients with respiratory problems who have survived the initial injury, but have subsequently required ventilatory support, often for several weeks. In view of the continuing pressure on ICU beds and a consequent need for alternative means of providing ventilatory support within the spinal centre rather than within the ICU setting, there was a requirement to provide a simple means of ventilatory support suitable for use within the ward setting. Ventilatory assistance using BiPAP appeared to fulfil these criteria, enabling patients to be managed at reduced cost. We present our experience using this system in 28 acute SCI patients over a 4 year period.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23
ISSN:	1362-4393 1476-5624
DOI:	10.1038/sj.sc.3100676