Standard Oxygen Versus High Flow Nasal Cannula Oxygen Therapy in Patients With Acute Hypoxemic Respiratory Failure

First-line therapy of patients with acute respiratory failure consists in oxygen delivery through standard oxygen, high-flow nasal oxygen therapy through cannula or non-invasive ventilation. Non-invasive ventilation in acute hypoxemic respiratory failure is not recommended. In a large randomized controlled study, high-flow nasal oxygen has been described as superior to non-invasive ventilation and standard oxygen in terms of mortality but not of intubation. Paradoxically in immunocompromised patients, high-flow nasal oxygen has not been shown to be superior to standard oxygen. To improve the level of evidence of daily clinical practice, we propose comparing high-flow nasal oxygen versus standard oxygen, in terms of mortality in all patients with acute hypoxemic respiratory failure