Role of mechanical ventilation in acute severe asthma.
During the last 4 years, fifty-seven patients of acute severe asthma (ASA) were admitted to intensive care unit (ICU). Twenty-three patients required mechanical ventilation (MV) on 25 occasions. Indications to intubate were persistent hypoxia (PaO2 < or = 55 mm Hg) or hypercapnia with respiratory acidosis (64%), abnormal mentation (24%) and respiratory arrest (12%). All the patients were monitored for clinical features, arterial blood gases (ABG) and peak airway pressure (PAP). During MV, there was one case of pneumothorax (4%), seven (28%) cases of transient hypertension and one (4%) patient died. Mean duration of MV was 3 days and the outcome was favourable. Therefore, resorting to aggressive treatment early in the course of disease proves life saving in acute severe asthma.
Department of Anaesthesiology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh.
Y K
YK
Batra
R M
RM
Sarnaik
S
S
Gupta
S K
SK
Jindal
D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001249:Asthma / Q000628:therapy*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012121:Respiration, Artificial; D016896:Treatment Outcome