Table 13—

Morbidity with bilevel noninvasive positive pressure ventilation use in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease randomised controlled trials

First author [Ref.]	Trial length	Outcome	Rx/CL	Outcome data	Comments
Casanova 11	1 yr	Acute exacerbations at 3 months %	Rx	52	Greater increase in acute exacerbations in control group
			CL	57	Greater increase in acute exacerbations in control group
		Acute exacerbations at 12 months %	Rx	66	Number of hospital admissions significantly less in the bilevel versus control group at 3 months*; however, not sustained at 12 months
			CL	77
		Hospital admissions at 3 months %	Rx	5*
			CL	15
		Hospital admissions at 12 months %	Rx	18
			CL	19
		Intubations at 3 months %	Rx	2
			CL	16
		Intubations at 12 months %	Rx	6
			CL	10
Clini 23	2 yrs	Hospital admission rate % reduction at 3 months	Rx	45	Hospital admission reduction in the Rx group (45%) and increase in the control group (27%)
		Hospital admission rate % reduction at 12 months	Rx	18
		ICU admission days·patient⁻¹·yr	Rx	0.2±0.4
			CL	0.4±0.8

Data are presented as mean±sd, unless otherwise stated. Rx: treatment; CL: control; ICU: intensive care unit. *: p<0.05.