Near-Fatal Asthma

By Mark D. Siegel, MD, FCCP

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Summary

Managing patients with NFA is one of the most difficult challenges facing critical care physicians. Although any asthmatic is theoretically at risk for life-threatening attacks, it is becoming clear that those with NFA are a unique group characterized by poor baseline asthma control and severely inflamed airways. Fortunately, advances in management, emphasizing high doses of corticosteroids and safe mechanical ventilation techniques, ensure survival in the vast majority who come to the ICU. Still, the severe morbidity associated with NFA makes it critical that outpatient management be enhanced to prevent this dread disorder.

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