Who are the COPD patients under long-term home mechanical ventilation?

Abstract

COPD is a leading indication for Home Mechanical Ventilation (HMV) due to underlying chronic hypercapnic respiratory failure. HMV, therapeutic advances, and preventive strategies lead to increased longevity of these patients. We preformed a retrospective analysis of COPD patients using HMV for more than 10 years, followed in our HMV Clinic from January 2017 to March 2022. Our aim was to characterize COPD patients using long term HMV. From a total of 56 patients using HMV for more than 10 years, a total of 20 patients had COPD. Results are summarized on figure 1. Mean age was 74.7 ± 7.9 years, with a mean age at initiation of HMV of 60.0 ± 8.6. The median duration of HMV was 160 [144 - 206] months. Fifteen patients initiated HMV in a stable condition. These patients had concomitant comorbidities, much commonly hypertension, obesity, OSA and heart failure. Sixteen patients had responded to the S3-NIV questionnaire, with a median score of 7.05 [5.51 – 7.95]. We found that over a third of our long-term ventilated patients have COPD. Interestingly ¾ of our sample has initiated HMV in stable condition, at a time where evidence of HMV in COPD was scarce. It is uncertain if this contributes to the longevity of these patients. Footnotes Cite this article as: ERJ Open Research 2022; 8: Suppl. 9, 40. This article was presented at the 2022 ERS Respiratory Failure and Mechanical Ventilation Conference, in session “Poster Session 2”. This is an ERS Respiratory Failure and Mechanical Ventilation Conference abstract. No full-text version is available. Further material to accompany this abstract may be available at [www.ers-education.org][1] (ERS member access only). [1]: http://www.ers-education.org