Intermittent negative pressure ventilation in the treatment of hypoxic hypercapnic coma in chronic respiratory insufficiency.

Abstract

These results show that, in patients with acute on chronic respiratory failure and hypoxic hypercapnic coma, the iron lung resulted in a high rate of success. As this study has the typical limitations of all retrospective and uncontrolled studies, the results need to be formally confirmed by controlled prospective studies. Confirmation of these results could widen the range of application of non-invasive ventilatory techniques.