الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract At the end of 2019, an outbreak of pneumonia of unknown etiology started from Wuhan, Hubei, China and subsequently spread worldwide. Italy was hit at the end of February 2020 and, as of the end of July 2020, more than 250,000 infections and more than 35,000 deaths had been reported . A novel beta-coronavirus, named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2), was identified as the cause of the epidemic, and the resulting disease was called Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). COVID-19 has a broad spectrum of clinical presentations, ranging from asymptomatic to extremely severe forms. A significant proportion of infected subjects develops the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and requires admission to an intensive care unit (ICU) and invasive mechanical ventilation (2, 3) . Initial management of the hypoxemic patient should involve immediate use of supplemental oxygen. If the patient fails to achieve adequate oxygenation with conventional supplemental oxygen, high-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) oxygen or non-invasive positive pressure ventilation (NIPPV) may be used. If patients fail to improve with the non-invasive methods after a timelimited trial or worsen, timely endotracheal intubation should be considered to avoid any harm . |