Awake Prone Positioning to Reduce Invasive VEntilation in COVID-19 Induced Acute Respiratory failurE

Summary

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Prone positioning (PP) is an adjunctive therapy used that has been proven to save lives in sedated patients with confirmed moderate-severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) receiving invasive mechanical ventilation (MV). PP involves placing patients in the prone, i.e. face down position for...

Prone positioning (PP) is an adjunctive therapy used that has been proven to save lives in sedated patients with confirmed moderate-severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) receiving invasive mechanical ventilation (MV). PP involves placing patients in the prone, i.e. face down position for time periods of up to 16 hours per day. PP promotes lung homogeneity, improves gas exchange and respiratory mechanics permitting reduction of ventilation intensity, and reducing ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI). Maintaining self-ventilation is associated with increased aeration of dependent lung regions, less need for sedation, improved cardiac filling and removes the risk of VILI, and so is an important therapeutic goal in hypoxic patients. The use of PP in awake self-ventilating patients with COVID-19 induced acute hypoxic respiratory failure (AHRF) and/or ARDS could improve gas exchange and reduce the need for invasive MV, but has not been studied outside of case series. However, an increase in oxygenation does not necessarily reduce the risk of invasive MV. PP has significant attached risks such as causing pressure sores in patients, PP is uncomfortable for some patients, it increases nursing workload, and if ineffective could hinder the delivery of other (effective) medical care. Hence there is a need to determine if PP of awake patients is effective in reducing the need for invasive MV. This multi-centre, open label, randomized controlled study of COVID-19 induced AHRF/ARDS will determine if PP reduces the need for mechanical ventilation.

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