[Modalities and indications for ventilation at home]

Abstract

Home mechanical ventilation improved with as non invasive mechanical ventilation, not using endotracheal connection, which supplanted home mechanical ventilation with tracheostomy. Its main indication is chronic restrictive ventilatory failure with hypoxia and hypercapnia, the severity of which is revealed during an acute respiratory failure episode or through the apparition of diurnal signs of nocturnal hypoventilation. Its other indications are more controversial in obstructive respiratory failure, where long term oxygen therapy remains the first choice treatment, and where home mechanical ventilation is proposed when the disease worsens, with recurrent episodes of hospitalisation for acute decompensation.