Results -There were 45 treatment failures (30%) and 36 deaths (24%). Nine patients (6%) required intubation because of lack of airway control. The median total duration of ventilation was 27 hours per patient (range 2-274). The 105 successfully treated cases recovered consciousness after a median of four hours (range 1-90) of continuous ventilatory treatment and were discharged after 12.1 (9.0) days. Conclusions -These results show that, in patients with acute on chronic respiratory failure and hypoxic hypercapnic coma, the iron lung resulted in a high rate ofsuccess. 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.

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Nine subjects with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in acute respiratory failure (ARF) and with marked weakness of the respiratory muscles (Group A) underwent intermittent negative pressure ventilation by means of an iron lung (8 h daily for 7 days). Seven subjects with COPD in stabilized chronic respiratory failure (Group B) were studied as controls and submitted to the same medical therapy without ventilator treatment. Functional respiratory tests were performed before and after 7 days of treatment. After ventilatory treatment, Group A showed an increase of maximum inspiratory pressure (PImax), maximum expiratory pressure (PEmax), vital capacity (VC), arterial oxygen tension (PaO2), pH and a decrease of residual volume (RV), total lung capacity of (TLC) and arterial carbon dioxide tension (PaCO2) (all statistically significant). No improvement was ascertained in the functional parameters of Group B. The expiratory muscles seem to play a determining role in ARF. We conclude that the iron lung is a useful therapeutic defence in removing muscular fatigue and in restoring a good level of respiratory compensation of ARF in severe COPD.