[Non-invasive ventilation in Romania -- results of an inquiry among lung physicians].

Non-invasive ventilation (VNI), although it is a validated strategy for many years with serious scientific studies, remains a matter of acceptance by Romanian colleagues. In this investigation on 140 valid questionnaires we found that VNI was used by 22.1% of lung physicians, with the highest percentage of those under 40 years (30.

[Preoperative evaluation for pulmonary resections in COPD patients].

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease - COPD, being one of the most frequent chronic pathologies in the world, an important number of such patients can necessitate, at a certain moment, a thoracic surgical intervention, especially pulmonary resections for pulmonary carcinoma. In these cases, the removing of a certain volume of pulmonary tissue from a patient who already has a respiratory malfunction necessitates a judicious preoperative evaluation to establish the correct indication, risk factors and postoperative prognosis (at least regarding the pulmonary function). Although the preoperative evaluation for pulmonary resections has been studied for many years, a parameter has not been found yet, simple or combined, to accurately predict the outcome.

[Specifics of identifying patients with sleep apnea syndrome (SAS) in Romania].

After 7 years after the opening of the first somnography laboratory in Romania and screening of over 700 patients addressed for identification or therapy of SAS we managed to compare the group of pts with this disease to those in which the disease was not confirmed. Usually, disease was diagnosed in severe stages, there was a dominance of association with some well known risk factors: obesity, diabetes mellitus, male sex. Our study demonstrates a lack of education in patient level but also in physician level to provide CPAP as treatment due to lack of coverage by the Medical Insurance and high price of this kind of ventilatory assistance.