Respiratory Strategies in COVID-19

So COVID-19 has produced a multitude of challenges to healthcare providers, the response to these challenges has been phenomenal. One uncertainty is the strategy we should employ for hypoxic respiratory failure and several high quality guidelines have presented conflicting advice for the severely hypoxic patient. The Warwick Clinical Trials Unit has already begun recruiting patients to their RECOVERY-RS trial, which is open for hospitals in the UK to sign up for. This looks at 3 different strategies of respiratory support for patients admitted with suspected or known COVID-19 and hypoxia; namely CPAP, High-flow nasal oxygen and standard care. The trial is funded by the NIHR and supported by the Intensive Care Society. In this episode we get a chance to speak to Bronwen Connolly, one of the investigators of the RECOVERY-RS trial; we discuss the background evidence, the trial design, and when results will be available. As always we'd love to hear any thoughts or comments you have on the website and via twitter, and make sure you take a look at the protocol yourself. Enjoy! Simon, Rob & James