Eurovent survey

Lloyd-Owen SJ, Donaldson GC, Ambrosino N, et al. Patterns of home mechanical ventilation use in Europe results from the Eurovent survey. Eur Respir J 2005 25 1025-1031. 

Care providers play a crucial role in HMV in most countries. The Eurovent survey showed that, in Europe, ventilator servicing, such as maintenance, repair, delivery of spare parts, and regular surveillance, was carried out mainly by private companies. In some countries like Sweden, ventilator servicing was carried out directly by hospitals. The interaction between servicing companies and the prescriber was poor (14). Another problem was the variety of ventilators that exist in the market, with more than 70 models in Europe for 70% preset pressure and 30% volume ventilation. 

Nett LM, Obrigewith R. Home visiting system and improved quality of life. In Kira S, Petty TL, eds. Progress in Domiciliary Respiratory Care. Amsterdam Excerpta Medica, 1994. Lloyd-Owen SJ, Donaldson GC, Ambrosino N, et al. Patterns of home mechanical ventilation use in Europe results from the Eurovent survey. Eur Respir J 2005 25 1025-1031. 

Health care funding differs among various jurisdictions, even in the same country. The recent Eurovent survey (8) noted wide variations across Europe in users, equipment, and interfaces. In the United Kingdom, nursing care is funded after assessment of the nature, complexity, intensity, and predictability of clinical care needs (9,10). 

Another pan-European questionnaire survey, funded by a European Union Concerted Action grant (the Eurovent survey), was undertaken to survey custom and practice in the different countries (15) to determine if the state of affairs had changed some 10 years after the study by Eauroux et al. (10). 

Other findings from the Eurovent survey were that patients were more likely to have their HMV initiated and maintained by a university hospital rather than by a nonuniversity hospital. The study also demonstrated that there was a bimodal distribution of users with older patients (>66 years) having predominantly lung and ehest wall diseases and younger... 

The most complete European data on the use of HMV has been reported recently as the Eurovent study, a survey of long-term ventilator use conducted in 16 countries (15). In this survey, home ventilation was defined as ventilatory assistance for three months or more. Those receiving other forms of ventilation, such as rocking beds, negative-pressure ventilation, and phrenic nerve stimulation, were included. A total of 483 surveys were sent to the centers prescribing HMV in the 16 countries, with 329 centers (68%) responding. The numbers of patients and prevalence rates were estimated for each country. As noted in Table 3, there was a wide variation in the prevalence of HMV in Europe, ranging from 0.1/ 100,000 population in Poland to 17/100,000 in France. The survey identified a total of 21,526 VAIs and estimated the prevalence of HMV to be 6.6/100,000 population in Europe. 

The sources of data on the prevalence of CRF are mostly indirect and not universally available in all countries and regions. Thus, an exact picture of CRF as a global issue remains largely incomplete, both in terms of geographical distribution and the global dimension. Multinational surveys, such as the Eurovent study, can provide insights into the use of HMV. 

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