Outcomes of Patients Treated with Prehospital Noninvasive Ventilation: Observational Retrospective Multicenter Study in the Northern French Alps.

Noninvasive ventilation (NIV) improves the outcome of acute cardiogenic pulmonary edema (AcPE) and acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (aeCOPD) but is not recommended in pneumonia. The aim of this study was to assess the appropriateness of the use of NIV in a prehospital setting, where etiological diagnostics rely mainly on clinical examination. This observational multicenter retrospective study included all the patients treated with NIV by three mobile medical emergency teams in 2015.