[Treatment for exacerbation--drug and non-drug therapy, criteria of hospitalization and ICU admission].

: It is necessary to evaluate the degree of severity and make a diagnosis of exacerbation factor for acute exacerbation of COPD patients. The highest frequency exacerbation factors are respiratory infection and aerial pollution, so clinical examinations and treatments should be done in consideration of these exacerbation factors. In case of respiratory failure, it is preferable to treat a patient in the hospital. Furthermore, it is important to evaluate the type of respiratory failure, in other words, with or without of hypercapnia. When patients have respiratory failure with hypercapnia, ventilatory assisit therapy is necessary in addition to oxygen therapy. Moreover, it is very important to prevent exacerbation, because patients of COPD exacerbation have poor prognosis and QOL.