Awake Prone Positioning for Non-intubated COVID-19 Patients

The burden of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is still on a rising course making a great stress on medical resources throughout the world. Although most of COVID-19 patients require non-invasive oxygenation and ventilation, rapid progression to hypoxemic respiratory failure and then acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) can occur in some COVID19 patients due to prolonged or unaddressed hypoxia. Prone positioning is a common supportive ventilation strategy to improve oxygenation in critically ill patients with ARDS. Recent studies point out the potential benefits of using this strategy for non-intubated awake COVID 19 patients who are hypoxic. Despite several retrospective cohort studies have been conducted to identify impact of the prone positioning in awake non-intubated COVID-19 patients, experimental studies are very rare. This study therefore aims to evaluate the effects of self-prone positioning on oxygenation and physiological outcomes among awake-non intubated patients with COVID-19.