Current issues in the respiratory care of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

• Autor(a) principal: Orsini,Marco
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Outros Autores: Lopes,Agnaldo José, Menezes,Sara Lucia Silveira de, Oliveira,Acary Bulle, Freitas,Marcos Raimundo Gomes de, Nascimento,Osvaldo Jose Moreira do, Guimarães,Fernando Silva
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Arquivos de neuro-psiquiatria (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0004-282X2015001000873
• topic: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; respiratory function; rehabilitation

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a progressive neuromuscular disease, resulting in respiratory muscle weakness, reduced pulmonary volumes, ineffective cough, secretion retention, and respiratory failure. Measures as vital capacity, maximal inspiratory and expiratory pressures, sniff nasal inspiratory pressure, cough peak flow and pulse oximetry are recommended to monitor the respiratory function. The patients should be followed up by a multidisciplinary team, focused in improving the quality of life and deal with the respiratory symptoms. The respiratory care approach includes airway clearance techniques, mechanically assisted cough and noninvasive mechanical ventilation. Vaccination and respiratory pharmacological support are also recommended. To date, there is no enough evidence supporting the inspiratory muscle training and diaphragmatic pacing.