[Domiciliary assisted respiration by tracheotomy for chronic respiratory insufficiency (author's transl)]

Prerequisites for success in domiciliary assisted respiration for chronic respiratory insufficiency are the understanding of the patient and his active participation in the treatment as well as adjustment and attitude of his environment. The authors report their experience in 89 patients. Spirographic data were obtained in 72 patients which permitted subdivision into a group with restrictive disturbances and one with obstructive changes. The differences in prognosis in these two groups of patients were surprising. The survival rates in the obstructive diseases after 3, 5 and 10 years were 54%, 38% and 33% respectively; the corresponding values for the restrictive diseases were 84%, 84% and 69%. These differences are statistically significant. The restrictive changes are therefore considerably more favorable to assess, also with respect to a better quality of life.