Prehospital emergency care : official journal of the National Association of EMS Physicians and the National Association of State EMS Directors
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Review Meta Analysis
Prehospital continuous positive airway pressure for acute respiratory failure: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Acute respiratory failure (ARF) is a common problem encountered by emergency medical services and is associated with significant morbidity, mortality, and health care costs. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is an integral part of the hospital treatment of acute ARF, predominantly because of congestive heart failure. Intuitively, better patient outcomes may be achieved when CPAP is applied early in the prehospital setting, but there are few outcome studies to validate its use in this setting. ⋯ The studies included in this review showed a reduction in the number of intubations and mortality in patients with ARF who received CPAP in the prehospital setting. The results may not be applicable to other health care contexts because of the inherent differences in the organization and staffing of the EMS systems. Information from large RCTs on the efficacy of CPAP initiated early in the prehospital setting is critical to establishing the evidence base underpinning this therapy before ambulance services incorporate CPAP as routine clinical practice.