| Abstract [eng] |
Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia is a potentially life-threatening opportunist fungal infection, which mainly affects immunocompromised patients. It became more known during the HIV/AIDS pandemic which started in 1981, but in later years its impact on non-HIV immunocompromised patients became more apparent. This literature review focuses on mainly the use of non-invasive ventilation modalities to treat acute respiratory failure in patients with pneumocystis pneumonia, but also sheds light on its epidemiology, clinical presentation, diagnostic approaches, and its treatment methods other than non-invasive ventilation. This literature review mainly focuses on exploring the advantages of non-invasive ventilation compared to conventional mechanical ventilation. It highlights the poor outcomes which go hand in hand with conventional mechanical ventilation. It explores possibilities posed by non-invasive ventilation modalities, their effectiveness and their limitations. It also deals with the timing needed for the treatment initiation, disease severity, and the correct patient selection. Later this review discusses steps to introduce non-invasive ventilation modalities for the treatment of acute respiratory failure in pneumocystis pneumonia patients into the daily clinical practice but also highlights difficulties and problems which need to be addressed in order for it the be successfully implemented. It also highlights the need for further comprehensive studies, as there is limited research done on this disease. The usefulness of non-invasive ventilation to treat acute respiratory failure in patients with pneumocystis pneumonia is mainly derived from positive results of other studies focusing on other diseases based on the research done for this literature review. |
