[Chronic and severe respiratory insufficiency and pregnancy. A new way of treating it]

Severe chronic respiratory distress accompanied by pregnancy is not rare. It means that the fetus is at risk of being born prematurely and with intra-uterine growth retardation and the mother, apart from the obstetric complications that she is likely to suffer, has the chance of becoming decompensated as far as her cardiac and respiratory systems are concerned. There is therefore a very real need for assisted respiration. The authors report a case of chronic severe restrictive respiratory function and pregnancy in which the outcome was successful for the mother and for the fetus but where the mother had to be ventilated by a new procedure. This consisted of intermittent positive pressure ventilation using a nasal mask at home. The efficiency of this method has been proven and it is a method that must be preferable to tracheotomy.