Open Access Letter to the Editor

Mechanical ventilation in emergency departments: Non invasive or invasive mechanical ventilation. Where is the answer?

Antonio M Esquinas Rodriguez1*, Roberto Cosentini2 and Peter J Papadakos3

Author Affiliations

1 International Fellow AARC, Intensive Care Unit, Hospital Morales Meseguer, Avenida Marques de Los Velez s/n, Murcia, 30500, Spain

2 Gruppo_NIV UO Medicina d'Urgenza, Fondazione Ca' Granda, IRRCS Policlinico Milano, Via Francesco Sforza, 35, Milan, Italy

3 Surgery and Neurosurgery, Director Critical Care, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA

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Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine 2012, 20:40 doi:10.1186/1757-7241-20-40

Published: 26 June 2012

First paragraph (this article has no abstract)

The Emergency Department length of stay for patients requiring mechanical ventilation paper in this issue is very illustrative of many variables that still confound the way we treat patients that may not require endotracheal intubation (ETI) but may benefit from non-invasive mechanical ventilation (NIV) [1].

Keywords:
Emergency department; Non-invasive mechanical ventilation; Mechanical ventilation; Trauma; Length of stay