Efficacy and safety of high-flow nasal cannula therapy in elderly patients with acute respiratory failure.

Introduction: To assess the efficacy and safety of high-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) in elderly patients with acute respiratory failure (ARF) not due to COVID-19, refractory to treatment with conventional oxygen therapy and/or intolerant to noninvasive ventilation (NIV) or continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) and without criteria for admission to intensive care units (ICU).

Methods: Prospective observational study of patients with ARF treated with HFNC who presented clinical and arterial blood gas deterioration after 24 h of medical treatment and oxygenation by conventional systems. The degree of dyspnoea, gas exchange parameters (arterial O pressure/inspired O fraction ratio (PaO/FiO); oxygen saturation measured by oximetry/ inspired fraction of oxygen (Sp0/Fi0), ROX index), degree of patient tolerance and mortality were evaluated.

Portable pulse-dose oxygen concentrators should not be used with noninvasive ventilation.

An increasing number of patients, mainly COPD and overlap-syndrome patients, simultaneously use home oxygen therapy and noninvasive ventilation (NIV) at night. Usually the oxygen source is a stationary concentrator. We report a patient who, without a medical recommendation, was using a portable oxygen concentrator during nocturnal NIV.

Current status of noninvasive ventilation in stable COPD patients.

Noninvasive ventilation (NIV) has been one of the major advances in respiratory medicine in the last decade. NIV improves quality of life, prolongs survival, and improves gas exchange and sleep quality in restrictive patients, but evidence available now does not allow us to establish clear criteria for prescribing NIV in patients with chronic respiratory failure due to COPD. On the basis of the available studies, NIV should not be used as a treatment of choice for all patients with COPD, even when disease is severe.