Abstract
Over the last 20 years the Respiratory Unit at Danderyd Hospital, Sweden has treated and rehabilitated more than 90 patients on domiciliary ventilation, the majority of whom require night-time ventilation. Sixteen patients (11 men and 5 women) with high spinal cord lesions have been treated. Of these 16 patients, 9 are using diaphragmatic pacing. Every patient has a customised tube. If the patient can use diaphragmatic pacing the tube, as a rule, is single fenestrated. In patients using the ventilator full time, the tube is made to fit snugly in the trachea. When such a tube fits ‘as a bullet in its tube’ there is no need for a cuff. The patient has adequate ventilation and the small leak around the tube also permits good speech function. Sometimes a PEEP-valve is used to get a better voice.

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