Breath of Life

Approximately 90 per cent of deaths from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) are the result of chronic respiratory failure and/or respiratory infection. This is a discussion of the use of assisted ventilation by individuals with DMD, from an emotional, psychosocial, and ethical perspective.

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Approximately 90 percent of deaths from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) are the result of chronic respiratory failure and/or concurrent respiratory infection. Respiratory failure in neuromuscular diseases is of the restrictive type, resulting from progressive weakness of breathing muscles. The ventilator simply replaces or augments the failed bellows mechanism of the respiratory system. The use of assisted ventilation by individuals with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy has been in effect for the past 25 to 30 years. As in other management issues of DMD, there is, and probably will continue to be, recurrent debate regarding the cost/benefit ratio of various treatment regimes. The authors come to this issue from an emotional, psychosocial, and ethical perspective, as well as a financial point of view. A necessary volume in any library's consumer health collection.