Case report: emergency treatment of near-fatal acute asthma

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease affecting small airways, associated with hyperresponsiveness, reversible airflow-limitation and respiratory symptoms. During exhacerbations, the symptoms severity may vary from mild dyspnea to fatal status asthmaticus. Non-invasive ventilation is a respiratory support method that in COPD has been used succesfully in the last 20 years; there is an increasingly interest about using non-invasive ventilation also in asthmatic patients. However, its role in status asthmaticus has not been yet established. In this article we report a case of a patient succesfully treated with non-invasive ventilation and we also review the literature about non-invasive ventilation in acute asthma