Alternatives to Endotracheal Intubation for Patients with Neuromuscular Diseases

To evaluate the usefulness of continuous noninvasive mechanical ventilation and mechanical coughing aids to avoid endotracheal intubation and tracheostomy during episodes of acute respiratory failure in patients with neuromuscular disease.We conducted a prospective cohort study at the respiratory medicine ward of a university hospital to study the success rate of the use of continuous noninvasive mechanical ventilation and manually and mechanically (CoughAssist) assisted coughing to avert endotracheal intubation in 24 consecutive episodes of acute respiratory failure for 17 patients with neuromuscular disease. The noninvasive mechanical ventilation and coughing aids were used to reverse dec…