Comparison of High-Flow Nasal Cannula and Noninvasive Ventilation in Acute Hypoxemic Respiratory Failure Due to Severe COVID-19 Pneumonia
Parvathy R Nair, Damarla Haritha, Srikant Behera, Choro Athiphro Kayina, Souvik Maitra, Rahul Kumar Anand, Bikash Ranjan Ray, Manish Soneja, Rajeshwari Subramaniam, Dalim Kumar Baidya
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Efficacy of high-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) over noninvasive ventilation (NIV) in severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia is not known. We aimed to assess the incidence of invasive mechanical ventilation in patients with acute hypoxemic respiratory failure due to COVID-19 treated with either HFNC or NIV. METHODS: This was a single-center randomized controlled trial performed in the COVID-19 ICU of a tertiary care teaching hospital in New Delhi, India. One hundred and nine subjects with severe COVID-19 pneumonia presenting with acute hypoxemic respiratory failure were recruited and allocated to either HFNC ( n = 55) or NIV ( n = 54) arm. Primary outcome was intubation by 48 h. Secondary outcomes were improvement in oxygenation by 48 h, intubation rate at day 7, and in-hospital mortality. RESULTS: Baseline characteristics and <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mtext mathvariant="bold">P</mml:mtext> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mtext mathvariant="bold">aO</mml:mtext> </mml:mrow> <mml:mtext mathvariant="bold">2</mml:mtext> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> / <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mtext mathvariant="bold">F</mml:mtext> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mtext mathvariant="bold">IO</mml:mtext> </mml:mrow> <mml:mtext mathvariant="bold">2</mml:mtext> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> ratio were similar in both the groups. Intubation rate at 48 h was similar between the groups (33% NIV vs 20% HFNC, relative risk 0.6, 95% CI 0.31–1.15, P = .12). Intubation rate at day 7 was lower in the HFNC (27.27%) compared to the NIV group (46.29%) (relative risk 0.59, 95% CI 0.35–0.99, P = .045), and this difference remained significant after adjustment for the incidence of chronic kidney disease and the arterial pH (adjusted OR 0.40, 95% CI 0.17–0.93, P = .03). Hospital mortality was similar between HFNC (29.1%) and NIV (46.2%) group (relative risk 0.6, 95% CI 0.38–1.04, P = .06). CONCLUSIONS: We were not able to demonstrate a statistically significant improvement of oxygenation parameters nor of the intubation rate at 48 h between NIV and HFNC. These findings should be further tested in a larger randomized controlled trial. The study was registered at the Clinical Trials Registry of India ( www.ctri.nic.in ; reference number: CTRI/2020/07/026835) on July 27, 2020.