2 Clinical Trials for Various Conditions
Patients with severe chronic diseases are often admitted to the hospital complaining of shortness of breath. Some of these patients decide that they do not want placement of a breathing tube in the windpipe to assist their breathing. In this situation, these patients are treated with oxygen, a variety of medications like morphine or masks that are connected to breathing machines, something called bilevel positive airway pressure (BiPAP) or noninvasive ventilation (NIV), to help with their breathing. Not much is known about how much noninvasive ventilation helps these patients, especially how comfortable they feel with it and how much their families think it helps. Our aim is to monitor use of ways to help breathing in patients who don't want a breathing tube, see how often noninvasive ventilation is used and ask surviving patients, patient's families and caregivers about their experience with noninvasive ventilation and how much it seemed to help. With our findings, we hope to improve the use of noninvasive ventilation in these patients and come up with ways to relieve their shortness of breath and provide as much comfort as possible.
The purpose of this study to determine the safety and effectiveness of a mechanical device to remove carbon dioxide from the blood of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)when they are hospitalized in the intensive care unit for exacerbation of their condition.