Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who have been intubated and mechanically ventilated may prove difficult to wean. Noninvasive ventilation may be used in an attempt to avoid new endotracheal intubation. The efficacy of administration of noninvasive pressure support ventilation was evaluated in 30 COPD patients with postextubation hypercapnic respiratory insufficiency, compared with 30 historically matched control patients who were treated conventionally. Patients were included in the study if, within 72 h postextubation, they presented with respiratory distress, defined as the combination of a respiratory frequency >25 breaths x min(-1), an increase in the arterial carbon dioxide tension (Pa,CO2) of at least 20% compared with the value measured after extubation, and a pH <7.35. Noninvasive pressure support ventilation was effective in correcting gas exchange abnormalities. The use of noninvasive ventilation significantly reduced the need for endotracheal intubation: 20 of the 30 patients (67%) in the control group required endotracheal intubation, compared with only six of the 30 patients (20%) in the noninvasive-ventilation group (p<0.001). In-hospital mortality was not significantly different between the two groups, but the mean duration of ventilatory assistance for the treatment of the postextubation distress, and the length of intensive care unit stay related to this event, were both significantly shortened by noninvasive ventilation (p<0.01). In conclusion, noninvasive ventilation may be used in the management of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and postextubation hypercapnic respiratory insufficiency.

S. Tubiana). y Bruno Hoen and Xavier Duval contributed equally. z The members of COMBAT study group are listed at the Acknowledgments section. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Clinical Microbiology and Infectionj o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w . c l i n i c a l m i c r o b i o l o g y a n d i n f e c t i o n . c o m

Application of the LMA appears to be a safe and effective alternative to intubation for accomplishing FOB with BAL in immunosuppressed patients with suspected pneumonia and severe hypoxemia.

P0.1 recorded after extubation may be a good indicator of postextubation respiratory distress. Measuring P0.1 and/or the analysis of the evolution of this parameter could facilitate decisions during the period following extubation.

Methods of noninvasive pressure support ventilation (NIPSV) are not always easy to apply in patients with acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).The assistance time spent by nurses in relation to ventilatory time was prospectively studied, when NIPSV was used, in a sequential mode, in COPD patients with either acute exacerbations (58 patients, group I) or postextubation hypercapnic respiratory insufficiency (42 patients, group II) in a medical intensive care unit.During the first 24 h after enrolment, NIPSV was used for 6.7 3.2 h (mean SD) in group I and 5.6 3.1 h in group II; the duration of NIPSV sessions and the nurse time consumption per session were respectively 47 12 and 11 7 min in group I, and 46 12 and 11 6 min in group II. After the first 24 h of the study, the duration of NIPSV was 4.7 3.2 h . day -1 in group I and 4.9 3.5 h . day -1 in group II, and the nurse time consumption dropped significantly: the duration of NIPSV sessions and the nurse time consumption per session were respectively 44 10 and 7 4 min in group I, and 47 14 and 7 3 min in group II. Between the first 24 h and the subsequent period of 24 h, the nursing time dropped significantly (98 versus 59 min in group I (p<0.05), and 85 versus 52 min in group II (p<0.05)). There was no difference in the duration of NIPSV sessions, or in the overall assistance time per session, between the two groups of patients.In conclusion, the study seems to favour a quite low assistance time spent by nurses in relation to ventilatory time when noninvasive pressure support ventilation is used in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients with either acute exacerbations or postextubation hypercapnic respiratory insufficiency. Methods of noninvasive pressure support ventilation (NIPSV) are being proposed more and more for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and acute respiratory failure [1±6]. NIPSV can avoid the need for endotracheal intubation and its increasingly documented complications [7]. Nevertheless, this method of ventilation requires the presence of nurses familiar with the technique, and this may be time-consuming [3,8]. Moreover, according to certain reports [2, 4, 9, 10], some patients do not tolerate noninvasive ventilatory support, and side-effects of these techniques occur quite frequently [3,11].Three articles have demonstrated that the institution of noninvasive mechanical ventilation is not significantly more time-consuming for personnel than traditional medical therapy [4,12] or invasive mechanical ventilation [13]. However, two of these studies [12,13] were performed in respiratory intensive care units (ICUs) with a specialized activity, and where patient/staff ratios are generally lower than in general ICUs [13]. The authors consider that the problem lies not in comparing the workload linked to utilization of NIPSV with that linked to standard treatment or invasive mechanical ventilation, since it is advisable to use NIPSV to avoid intubation. It is more a question of know...