title: Noninvasive ventilation for acute lung injury a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare the effect of noninvasive ventilation (NIV) and standard oxygen therapy on treating acute lung injury (ALI).
  
  
  METHODS
  A search on PubMed, Embase, Springer, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and Clinical Trials was carried out up to Nov 2015 for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with NIV as cases and standard oxygen therapy as controls. Risk ratios and weight mean difference were used for estimation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  This meta-analysis included seventeen RCTs. Results showed NIV significantly reduced the intubation rate, length of ICU stay and hospital mortality. The length of hospital stay and ICU mortality were not different. High heterogeneity was found across the studies of intubation rate. The types of acute respiratory failure might be a source of heterogeneity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results suggest that NIV is effective for ALI in reducing the intubation rate, hospital mortality and length of ICU stay than the standard oxygen therapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Infection Management, Jinling Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, 305 East Zhongshan Road, Nanjing 210002, China. Electronic address: xiaolixu0916@163.com.
authors.forename: Xiaoli
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Administration, Jinling Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, 305 East Zhongshan Road, Nanjing 210002, China.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Administration, Jinling Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, 305 East Zhongshan Road, Nanjing 210002, China.
authors.forename: Quan
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Administration, Jinling Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, 305 East Zhongshan Road, Nanjing 210002, China.
authors.forename: Jiale
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Administration, Jinling Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, 305 East Zhongshan Road, Nanjing 210002, China. Electronic address: zhaorongshi0916@163.com.
authors.forename: Zhaorong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: Department of Infection Management, Jinling Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, 305 East Zhongshan Road, Nanjing 210002, China.
authors.forename: Huimin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Infection Management, Jinling Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, 305 East Zhongshan Road, Nanjing 210002, China.
authors.forename: Hongmei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.affiliation: Department of Infection Management, Jinling Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, 305 East Zhongshan Road, Nanjing 210002, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoyue
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Sheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Infection Management, Jinling Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, 305 East Zhongshan Road, Nanjing 210002, China.
authors.forename: Niuyan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nie
authors.affiliation: Department of Infection Management, Jinling Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, 305 East Zhongshan Road, Nanjing 210002, China.
authors.forename: Xiangyi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yin
mesh_terms: D055371:Acute Lung Injury / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D063087:Noninvasive Ventilation / Q000379:methods*; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
keywords: Acute lung injury; Acute respiratory distress syndrome; Acute respiratory failure; Intubation rate; Meta-analysis; Noninvasive ventilation