Acute hypoxic respiratory distress (AHRF) such as pneumonia, caused by an infection imposes the greatest health care burden on non-elective hospital admissions. The early use of non-invasive respiratory to facilitate respiratory support may avoid progression of the disease.

Nasal High Flow therapy (NHF) therapy has emerged as a new method to provide a form of positive pressure support with
titratable oxygen fraction. There is a lack of high-grade evidence on the use of NHF therapy in children with AHRF.

Eight in 1000 infants less than 12 months of age need hospital admission due to acute respiratory infection and represents the greatest number of non-elective intensive care admissions in the USA with a cost over U$ 1.7 billion per year.

This study at Gold Coast University Hospital aims to compare NHF therapy to standard subnasal oxygentherapy, in children 0-16 yrs of age with AHRF presenting to hospital. The primary outcome is treatment failure of NHF therapy or standard subnasal oxygen therapy.

Gold Coast University Hospital will be the first hospital in 2017, following the pilot trial at LCCH in 2016, to enrol patients on this much needed study.

The NHMRC awards Dr Donna Franklin (new member of our GCH ED research team) an Early Careers Researcher fellowship valued at $645,000 to continue the work on early respiratory support in children, following on from the PARIS studies GCH ED research has been involved in since 2014.