Characteristics of mechanical ventilation in patients of an intensive care unit

Background: non-invasive mechanical ventilation (NIMV) has been on the increase during the last decades. The specialized literature reveals its undeniable success in medical care of seriously ill patients. However, publications on the use of this method in daily medical practice in Cuba are scarce.Objective: to characterize the patients with criterion of acute respiratory failure who required mechanical ventilation at the intensive care unit of the “Amalia Simoni Argilagos” General Teaching Hospital of Camagüey, from January 2018 to January 2019.Methods: a prospective longitudinal descriptive study was carried out with the patients, institution and period of time stated in the objective. The sample consisted of 52 patients. Two groups were formed: one for those who received non-invasive mechanical ventilation (cases) and another group with patients who were treated invasively according to traditional ventilation criteria (controls). The data were processed according to descriptive statistics.Results: non-invasive ventilation was applied mostly to young patients; pneumonia was the main cause of application of both ventilatory methods, followed by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; most of those who received treatment with NIMV had a hospital stay of less than 7 days (78,84 %), this group also had a lower mortality.Conclusions: the patients who required mechanical ventilation were characterized. Better results were evidenced when using non-invasive mechanical ventilation.