Originally posted by Hannibal
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I do know this. CPAP (gentle positive pressure with no O2) or Bi-PAP (O2 added) is presently the treatment modality of choice if O2 sats drop below 90%. Prior to the proven efficacy of these two modalities, Docs where intubating and ventilating. It's way easier to fuck-up settings on a ventilator which is extremely sensitive to them. Too much pressure causes problems and, at first, vents caused big problems and vent use was responsible for higher mortality.
That's not the case now as knowledge has increased but if you can get by with low-risk, low-complexity CPAP or Bi-PAP it's way preferable to intubating and ventilating a hospitalized patient.
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