What is noninvasive ventilation? If you are a person who googles everything, then you will be redirected to the article Noninvasive Ventilation written by Guy Soo Hoo that states “Noninvasive ventilation (NIV) refers to the administration of ventilatory support without using an invasive artificial airway (endotracheal tube or tracheostomy tube).” Now if you are a person that likes to look at books to get the answer, then David W. Chang wrote in Clinical Application of Mechanical Ventilation that “noninvasive positive pressure ventilation is a technique of providing ventilation without the use of an artificial airway.” Wherever you want to get the definition from, the purpose is all the same: to help the ventilation of the patient …show more content…
This sounds simple, but every choice has consequences and noninvasive ventilation is no different. When a person is set up in ventilation, he or she faces the chance of getting skin breakdown and producing an ulcer. Some of the ways a patient can get these lesions or ulcers is from having the pressure set too high, wearing the mask for long periods of time without a break, if the mask does not fit properly, and in some cases the body mass index, however, that has not been proven yet. Any one of these could cause skin breakdown and there are ways to lessen the severity of the skin break down. If the patient has the correct mask size, alternates between the different interfaces available, and uses the foam, gel, or pads then the skin breakdown can be helped. In the beginning of this paper I asked a lot of questions, but throughout an investigation went on to try and get some answers. Skin breakdown is not the first thing a medical professional thinks of when he or she is setting a patient up on mechanical ventilation, but it should not be forgotten. Adding the extra support, or taking the extra step and making sure the mask fits can ultimately save a person from having skin breakdown and producing an