The Importance Of Respiratory Care

With all of the advances that have been made in respiratory care, it leaves us with a number of different therapies and equipment available to suit the needs of patients from any age, disease, and demographic. Though these different options are accessible to most acute care hospitals, there is not enough education being done for the proper implementation of these resources or protocols to help drive them. In terms of neonatal non-invasive ventilation, there are several methods of helping ventilate or fix an oxygenation issue to prevent the need for an artificial airway. Traditionally you will find a lot of nasal continuous positive airway pressure (NCPAP) in your standard special care nursery or neonatal intensive care unit, to help give …show more content…
Even with the help of all of these advanced modes, it is necessary to take the greater risk and be intubated. Though there is a significant risk for the patient to get infections or barotrauma during the process of mechanical ventilation, the good thing is that the majority of infants do not require an artificial airway for an extended period of time. Once the need for mechanical ventilation has subsided and the acute process has been reversed, sometimes it is still necessary to provide a little respiratory support post extubation to prevent a possible reintubation procedure. In regard to patients post extubation, there have been several studies that have researched and compared the effects of noninvasive ventilatory support and advanced modes to see if one specific method has better outcomes than another. Previously, post extubation to nasal CPAP seemed like more of a standard across the board because the results were much better than simply extubating right to an oxyhood or blow-by oxygen. NIPPV as previously mentioned uses an additional inspiratory pressure to provide greater support than NCPAP. Studies have confirmed that work of breathing is more easily reduced using NIPPV and the patients experience greater tidal volumes and minute ventilation over all. In the study conducted, several factors were included such as the need for reintubation within one weeks time, duration of hospital stay, the need for supplemental oxygen for an extended period of time and overall mortality. An except from the authors conclusions find that the use of nasal intermittent positive pressure ventilation (NIPPV) after extubation reduces the incidence of symptoms of extubation failure within 48 hours to seven days, when compared with nasal continuous positive airway pressure (NCPAP). These benefits were more consistently observed in studies