Abstract
Educational aims
-
To explain the rationales for home noninvasive ventilation (NIV) in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients.
-
To review available evidence on the use of home NIV in COPD patients.
-
To review the current consensus on the indications for home NIV in COPD patients.
-
To describe recent evidence in support of home NIV in a selected group of severe COPD patients.
-
To outline future research directions in this area.
Summary NIV is now considered the standard care for COPD patients with hypercapnic exacerbations of their disease. There are theoretical benefits of long-term NIV in COPD patients, but evidence from randomised controlled trials (RCTs) is conflicting and inconclusive. This article will address the following issues:
• What are the physiological and clinical rationales for the use of home NIV in COPD patients?
• What is the available evidence on the use of home NIV in COPD patients?
• What are the limitations of previous studies performed in this area?
• Recent advances in home NIV.
• Future directions.
- ERS
