Dear Editor,
We read Katherine Margaret Bergs and co-authors' review on non-invasive ventilation (NIV) with great interest [1]. The authors focus on NIV in a hospital setting. As an amendment to this review, we would like to draw attention to the fact that NIV has successfully crossed the border to prehospital use in the past few years. NIV is increasingly being used for the treatment of severe respiratory distress in prehospital settings [2]. This technique has even been used successfully in medical emergencies in really remote places at high altitude in mountain medicine [3, 4]. We think the prehospital use of NIV deserves growing interest.
References
Berg KM, Clardy P, Donnino MP (2012) Non-invasive ventilation for acute respiratory failure: a review of the literature and current guidelines. Intern Emerg Med 7:539–545
Williams B, Boyle M, Robertson N, Giddings C et al (2012) When pressure is positive: a literature review of the prehospital use of continuous positive airway pressure. Prehosp Disaster Med 9:1–10
Schoene RB, Roach RC, Hackett PH, Harrison G, Mills WJ Jr et al (1985) High altitude pulmonary oedema and exercise at 4,400 meters on Mount McKinley. Effect of expiratory positive airway pressure. Chest 87:330–333
Koch RO, Hinterhuber L, Faulhaber M, Gatterer H, Graupner S, Muenzel K, Burtscher M et al (2009) A successful therapy of high-altitude pulmonary oedema with a CPAP helmet on Lenin Peak. Clin J Sport Med 19:72–73
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Röggla, G., Moser, B. & Moser, B. Non-invasive ventilation in prehospital settings. Intern Emerg Med 8, 453 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11739-013-0909-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11739-013-0909-y