What Circuits, Masks and Filters Should Be Used in Home Non-Invasive Mechanical Ventilation

Most of the published reviews about non-invasive home ventilation mainly reflect the technical aspects of ventilators. There is much less information about the consumables most used at home. However, the choice of a good interface or tubing system can lead to physiological changes in the patient–ventilator interaction that the clinician should be aware of. These physiological changes may affect the performance of the ventilator itself, the reliability of monitoring and, of course, the comfort of the patient. The use of different circuits, masks or filters is therefore related to the concepts of rebreathing, compressible volume, instrumental dead space or leak estimation and tidal volume. Through certain bench experiments, it is possible to determine the implications that each of these elements may have in clinical practice.