Noninvasive respiratory support for acute respiratory failure due to COVID-19

Purpose of review Noninvasive respiratory support has been widely applied during the COVID-19 pandemic. We provide a narrative review on the benefits and possible harms of noninvasive respiratory support for COVID-19 respiratory failure. Recent findings Maintenance of spontaneous breathing by means of noninvasive respiratory support in hypoxemic patients with vigorous spontaneous effort carries the risk of patient self-induced lung injury: the benefit of averting intubation in successful patients should be balanced with the harms of a worse outcome in patients who are intubated after failing a trial of noninvasive support. The risk of noninvasive treatment failure is greater in patients with the most severe oxygenation impairment (PaO2/FiO2 
Source: Current Opinion in Critical Care - Category: Nursing Tags: RESPIRATORY SYSTEM: Edited by Giacomo Grasselli Source Type: research