Ventilatory assistance in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

D uchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) leads to progressive muscle weakness, causing respiratory failure [1, 2]. Untreated patients die at ,25 yrs of age, and the mean age of death in the 1960s was 15 yrs. The introduction of mechanical ventilation has improved survival compared with historical controls [1–3]. This finding has led to general agreement that noninvasive ventilation prolongs life in patients with DMD, although no controlled studies have been performed to confirm this hypothesis [4].