Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. May 26, 2020; 8(10): 1939-1943
Published online May 26, 2020. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v8.i10.1939
Helmet-based noninvasive ventilation for acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A case report
Mi Hwa Park, Min Jeong Kim, Ah Jin Kim, Man-Jong Lee, Jung-Soo Kim
Mi Hwa Park, Min Jeong Kim, Jung-Soo Kim, Division of Pulmonology, Department of Internal Medicine, Inha University Hospital, Incheon 22332, South Korea
Ah Jin Kim, Man-Jong Lee, Division of Critical Care Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Inha University Hospital, Incheon 22332, South Korea
Author contributions: Park MH, Kim JS were responsible for the data analysis and interpretation and contributed to writing the manuscript; Kim MJ, Lee MJ, Kim AJ were responsible for the data selection and clinical interpretation of the data; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent to publish case details and any accompanying images was obtained from the patient.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Jung-Soo Kim, MD, Professor, Division of Pulmonology, Department of Internal Medicine, Inha University Hospital, 27 Inhang Road, Jung-gu, Incheon 22332, South Korea. acecloer31@gmail.com
Received: February 8, 2020
Peer-review started: February 8, 2020
First decision: March 18, 2020
Revised: April 4, 2020
Accepted: April 30, 2020
Article in press: April 30, 2020
Published online: May 26, 2020
Processing time: 107 Days and 7.8 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: We present a case of acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in a 73-year-old male. Despite oronasal mask-based noninvasive ventilation (NIV) and adjustment of positive end-expiratory pressure and inspiratory positive pressures, hypercapnia and conscious level were not improved. The patient refused invasive mechanical ventilation, and accordingly we opted for helmet-based NIV. Subsequently, hypercapnia and conscious level recovered to his pre-hospitalization level. Helmet-based NIV may be considered as a salvage treatment, when an acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patient refuses invasive mechanical ventilation and has failed to respond to oronasal mask-based NIV.