Improved Early Respiratory Support of Infants and Children
Quick facts
Dr Andreas Schibler, Prof Franz Babl and Prof John Fraser
Hypoxaemia remains the main reason of death in children with pneumonia with the highest health care burden on society world-wide. With increasing hospital and intensive care admissions, respiratory support is now targeted early in the progression of the disease. Recent developments have shown that early intervention with non-invasive and well tolerated respiratory support systems have reduced the need to escalate therapy and offloaded the pressure on high cost ICU beds. This has recently been proven with the COVID-19 pandemic, where nasal high-flow therapy has reduced the need for invasive ventilation and likely mortality in adults. The key objectives of 5 large projects within this program aim to demonstrate that early and less invasive respiratory support system will lead to improved overall outcomes in paediatrics.