FIG. 22: Patients who were unable to wean off acute NIV prior to discharge or transfer to the specialist center for assessment of domiciliary NIV were precluded from enrollment in HOT-HMV for ethical reasons.[1] In addition, patients who required either daytime NIV or >6 h of nocturnal NIV to maintain adequate resolution of respiratory failure in the 2 weeks following initial improvement were also excluded.

Patients who had NIV withdrawn and then decompensated following the addition of O2 therapy in the recovery phase were also withdrawn from randomization since these patients would obviously empirically require treatment with NIV.