Qi Liu, Yonghua Gao, Rongchang Chen and Zhe Cheng. Crit Care. 2016;20(1):265
This meta-analysis aimed to analyse the effects of NIV using the helmet in comparison to a control strategy in patients with acute respiratory failure (ARF). Primary outcomes were hospital mortality, intubation rate and complications and secondary outcomes included length of intensive care unit (ICU) stay, gas exchange and respiratory rate. Results from 11 studies and 621 patients demonstrated that the overall mortality was circa 18% in the helmet NIV group versus circa 31% in the in the control group. The helmet implementation was also linked with lower hospital mortality, intubation and complication rates. Furthermore, subgroup analysis showed that the helmet reduced mortality mainly in hypoxemic ARF patients and the PaCO2 was influenced by the type of ARF and ventilation mode. Thus, the helmet represents a superior approach to the conventional therapy, but additional larger studies must be carried out to confirm these results.
Link to abstract.