High Flow Nasal Cannula HFNC In Covid-19 Patients

Overview

Many non-invasive ventilatory choices are available for COVID-19 patient who are having mild to moderate respiratory distress and their use will decrease the chance of ICU admission, intubation and mechanical ventilation in severe cases of COVID-19. However, all these respiratory supports and oxygen supply devices are aerosol generating and their selection should be precised enough to control nosocomial spread. High flow nasal cannula HFNC is a device that delivered the warmed and humid air on high flow rate through nose. It is used to treat severe respiratory distress in COVID-19 patients, a non-invasive ventilatory approach which is relative comfortable by using humidified and pre-heated air containing large concentration of oxygen. In acute respiratory failure HFNC is proven to be very effective and it also reduced the need of mechanical ventilation in severe patients. Apart from the supply of oxygen, HFNC generating positive airway pressure and decreasing the rebreathing from anatomical dead space. Prone position is also a save therapy and has been proven to be effective for refractory hypoxia by increasing tidal volume, oxygenation and diaphragmatic functions in ARDS patients. Recent studies showed that prone positioning and HFNC might avoid the prerequisite of intubation in moderate to severe patients of ARDS and as a result it decreases the nosocomial infection in physicians who are doing these aerosol generating procedures.

This is observational single-center study, that will be done at Lahore General Hospital in which 95 beds are allocated for COVID-19 patients including ICUs and HDUs. Ethical approval will be obtained from research ethical committee of Lahore General hospital, Lahore. Informed consent will be obtained from all patients who will agree to publish their data in this research. We will protect patient's privacy and obey with the Helsinki Declaration.