Use of High-Flow Nasal Cannula in Users with acute Respiratory Diseases Receiving Hospital at Home / Uso de cánula nasal de alto flujo en usuarios con patologías respiratorias agudas en hospitalizacion domiciliaria

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Hospital at Home (HAH) is considered an extremely important service, showing great efficacy in the treatment of respiratory diseases. Objectives: To evaluate the effects of high-flow nasal cannulas (HFNCs), describe the experience of patients treated with this therapy as HC and propose a protocol that standardizes the use of this equipment in the context of acute respiratory diseases as home care. Materials and Methods: This was done by means of a quasi-experimental study with patients admitted to HAH between May and September 2019. For the statistical analysis we used Minitab 17.0. Results: 11 subjects met the inclusion criteria, with a mean age of 73 ± 7.8 years. 100% of them (N = 11) had been referred from the emergency service with oxygen requirements. 73.2% (N = 8) were admitted with diseases classified as J15 and J44; 18.1% (N = 2) had diagnosis code J84 and 9% (N = 1) had diagnosis code J46, according to the ICD-10 (International Classification of DiseasesTenth Edition). The mean duration of the HFNC connection was 7.5 ± 5.1 days. We used a mean flow of 35 ± 5.2 L/min, FiO2 of 33 ± 6.1% and a temperature of 32.3 ± 5.1 Degrees Celsius (°C). The clinical signs with statistically significant changes were (Kruskal Wallis, p < 0.05) the BORG Scale, UAM, RR and the SAFI Index. The SpO2 and HR didn't show statistically significant differences. Conclusion: Despite the fact that the number of patients under treatment was low, there are potentially significant effects in parameters of relevance for this type of diseases, and this may serve as a basis for future studies.