Is continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) a new standard of care for type 1 respiratory failure in COVID-19 patients? A retrospective observational study of a dedicated COVID-19 CPAP service
Rebecca Nightingale, Nneka Nwosu, Farheen Kutubudin, Tom Fletcher, Joe Lewis, Frederick Frost, Kathryn Haigh, Ryan Robinson, Ayesha Kumar, Gareth Jones, Deborah Brown, Michael Abouyannis, Mike Beadsworth, Peter Hampshire, Stephen Aston, Manish Kumar Gautam, Hassan Burhan
Abstract
The aim of this case series is to describe and evaluate our experience of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) to treat type 1 respiratory failure in patients with COVID-19. CPAP was delivered in negative pressure rooms in the newly repurposed infectious disease unit. We report a cohort of 24 patients with type 1 respiratory failure and COVID-19 admitted to the Royal Liverpool Hospital between 1 April and 30 April 2020. Overall, our results were positive; we were able to safely administer CPAP outside the walls of a critical care or high dependency unit environment and over half of patients (58%) avoided mechanical ventilation and a total of 19 out of 24 (79%) have survived and been discharged from our care.