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Sleep Apnea Guide
Pre-hospital Use Of CPAP
Most sleep apnea sufferers will be familiar with CPAP which is a standard and very common form of treatment for people suffering from this sleep disorder. What may not be so widely known however is that the pre-hospital use of CPAP has been around for many years now for a variety of other conditions and that its use in now increasing.
One of the most common calls to the emergency services is for people in respiratory distress and one of the main roles for emergency medical personnel is to support the patients breathing while they are being transported to a hospital. In some cases this simply means administering drugs and high-flow oxygen, while in others it means assisting breathing using a bag-valve mask followed by intubation and it is the invasive nature of intubation which often leads to complications.
Increasingly medical services are looking for better non-invasions options for patients who require breathing support during transportation and one treatment which is emerging as a firm favorite in many quarters if the pre-hospital use of CPAP.
In many cases CPAP can get a patient through their crisis without the need for intubation at all, while in others it can buy some time and often make intubation easier if it is required and reduce the number of complications in carrying out this often difficult procedure. CPAP is also favored by many emergency service staff because it is easy to use and the equipment necessary is relatively small and can easily be carried in emergency vehicles.
The pre-hospital use of CPAP has been practiced in some countries for some time now, perhaps most notably in Finland where mobile intensive care units have been using this method for some 10 years now. Studies have also been carried out in the United States where reports have so far been favorable with crews reporting a dramatic drop in the need for intubations and often better treatment outcomes for the patients concerned.
As time goes by and more use is made of CPAP machines to support breathing difficulties in the field we will of course be able to build a better picture of its effectiveness. Nevertheless, it is nice to know that a treatment which is widely used to treat sleep apnea today could soon be supporting a much wider group of patients.
The information contained here should NOT be used as a substitute for the advice of an appropriately qualified and licensed physician or other health care provider.
The information provided here is for educational and informational purposes only and in no way should be considered as an offering of medical advice.
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