Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T09:04:12.934Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

19 - Long-term ventilatory support

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 October 2009

Iain Mackenzie
Affiliation:
Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge
Get access

Summary

Historical introduction

The polio outbreaks that affected the developed world in the early and mid-twentieth century are of particular historical importance. They acted as an impetus to the development of intensive care as a place where ‘life support’ could be provided while awaiting recovery from critical illness. Second, as survival in those who developed respiratory failure occurred, particularly following the introduction of positive pressure ventilation, significant numbers then required long-term respiratory support.

Depending upon the severity of an outbreak, there was the need to provide artificial ventilation to relatively large numbers of polio patients. Most at risk were children and young adults, who had not acquired ‘herd’ immunity. Providing such emergency care was to present major logistic problems for the hospitals at that time. Few ventilators were available before 1940, and even in the 1950s hospitals could easily be overwhelmed. In the healthcare service of today, it is easy to forget the devastating impact of the polio epidemics. Throughout the 1950s, over 3000 died in the US each year and, in the 1952–3 Copenhagen outbreak, one hospital was required to provide mechanical ventilation for 31 patients over the course of 3 weeks. Today, nearly 60 years after effective vaccination brought the epidemics under control, over 100,000 long-term survivors remain alive in the US and up to 30,000 in the UK.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×