Prevalence of life-supporting prolonged invasive ventilation support in Finland.

Background: There is no comprehensive data in our country on the prevalence of life-supporting prolonged invasive ventilation support. The objective of the survey was to clarify in all hospital districts of continental Finland the prevalence of patients who were dependent on invasive ventilation support, and the disease leading to the treatment.

Patients And Methods: The KOTIVEHNO 2015 survey was carried out as population-based cross-sectional study by sending a questionnaire to all doctors in charge of prolonged invasive ventilation support. The questionnaires were used to collect data on the patients within care on 1st January, 2017.

Results: The prevalence of life-supporting prolonged invasive ventilation support in Finland among the population aged over 16 years or more was 2/4 patients/100,000 habitants. Altogether 107 patients were within the care. There was variation in the prevalence among the hospital districts. Of the patients, 24% were affected with a motoneuron disease, in 18% the cause was spinal cord injury, 15% suffered from Duchenne's muscular dystrophy, and the rest had some other rare neurological disease.

Conclusions: Life-supporting prolonged invasive ventilation support is rare in Finland. The treatment is associated with neuromuscular diseases causing respiratory insufficiency, and with spinal cord injuries.