Initiating chronic non-invasive ventilation at home is as effective as doing so in a hospital for appropriate patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a study shows.

While high-intensity non-invasive ventilation is the standard of care for patients with COPD and chronic hypercapnic respiratory failure, it is often thought the delicate process of initiating and titrating the ventilation should take place in hospital, the Dutch researchers say.

Their single-centre randomised trial included 67 adult patients with COPD and chronic hypercapnic respiratory failure.

Patients randomised to in-hospital initiation were started on chronic non-invasive ventilation according to the pulmonary ward’s normal procedure, the researchers reported in Thorax.