Helmet NIV in Acute Hypoxemic Respiratory Failure due to COVID-19: Change in PaO/FiO Ratio a Predictor of Success.

In acute respiratory failure due to severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia, mechanical ventilation remains challenging and may result in high mortality. The use of noninvasive ventilation (NIV) may delay required invasive ventilation, increase adverse outcomes, and have a potential aerosol risk to caregivers. Data of 30 patients were collected from patient files and analyzed. Twenty-one (70%) patients were weaned successfully after helmet-NIV support (NIV success group), and invasive mechanical ventilation was required in 9 (30%) patients (NIV failure group) of which 8 (26.7%) patients died. In NIV success vs failure patients, the mean baseline PaO/FiO ratio (PFR) (147.2 ± 57.9 vs 156.8 ± 59.0 mm Hg; = 0.683) and PFR before initiation of helmet (132.3 ± 46.9 vs 121.6 ± 32.7 mm Hg; = 0.541) were comparable. The NIV success group demonstrated a progressive improvement in PFR in comparison with the failure group at 2 hours (158.8 ± 56.1 vs 118.7 ± 40.7 mm Hg; = 0.063) and 24 hours (PFR-24) (204.4 ± 94.3 vs 121.3 ± 32.6; = 0.016). As predictor variables, PFR-24 and change (delta) in PFR at 24 hours from baseline or helmet initiation (dPFR-24) were significantly associated with NIV success in univariate analysis but similar significance could not be reflected in multivariate analysis perhaps due to a small sample size of the study. The PFR-24 cutoff of 161 mm Hg and dPFR-24 cutoff of -1.44 mm Hg discriminate NIV success and failure groups with the area under curve (confidence interval) of 0.78 (0.62-0.95); = 0.015 and 0.74 (0.55-0.93); = 0.039, respectively. Helmet interface NIV may be a safe and effective tool for the management of patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia with acute respiratory failure. More studies are needed to further evaluate the role of helmet NIV especially in patients with initial PFR <150 mm Hg to define PFR/dPFR cutoff at the earliest time point for prediction of helmet-NIV success. Jha OK, Kumar S, Mehra S, Sircar M, Gupta R Helmet NIV in Acute Hypoxemic Respiratory Failure due to COVID-19: Change in PaO/FiO Ratio a Predictor of Success. Indian J Crit Care Med 2021;25(10):1137-1146.