Background
blunt chest trauma, respiratory distress, hypoxemia, trauma
ACUTE RESPIRATORY FAILURE
In blunt chest trauma patients with no immediate life-threatening injuries, non-invasive ventilation (NIV) has been widely used to prevent endotracheal intubation although the actual benefits have not been fully documented. To date, the literature in the field has been impaired by large heterogeneity in study designs, patients’ severity (i.e., acute respiratory failure or severe hypoxemia) or difference in comparators (i.e., oxygen or invasive ventilation), precluding strong recommendations regarding the most appropriate time for NIV initiation [The benefit–risk ratio of early NIV, before the occurrence of respiratory distress or severe hypoxemia in blunt chest trauma patients, remains controversial because of limited data [The main objective of this multicenter, randomized, controlled trial was to compare the rate of endotracheal intubation within 14 days after randomization between two NIV strategies in high-risk blunt chest trauma patients with an estimated PaO