The immediate outcome of ventilation for pulmonary diseases.

Fifty-eight patients were ventilated for acute respiratory failure complicating respiratory diseases between 1985 to 1990. There were 19 cases of chronic obstructive airway disease (COAD), 17 cases of asthma, 16 cases of pneumonia and 6 cases with other diagnoses. Overall, 40% of patients survived and were discharged from the ward. Patients with pneumonia had the lowest survival rate (25%) whilst the survival rates for asthma and COAD were 47% and 42% respectively. Increasing age had an inverse relationship to survival rate (r = 0.96, p < 0.05) but the duration of ventilation did not correlate with survival. Patients who were electively ventilated before respiratory arrest had a better chance of survival (57%) compared with only 18% survival rate in patients who were ventilated as an emergency (x2 = 4.47, p < 0.05). Patients who developed other organ failure had higher mortality (71%) than those who did not (22%; x2 = 2.14, p < 0.05). We conclude that patients younger than 50 years of age, who were electively ventilated and without other organ failure had a better immediate survival after assisted ventilation.