High Flow Nasal Cannula Therapy in Children with Acute Respiratory Insufficiency in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit of a Resource-limited Country: A Preliminary Experience

A retrospective study was performed in children (aged one month - 16 years) receiving HFNC to determine the frequency, efficacy and adverse effects of high flow nasal cannula (HFNC) therapy pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), from January December 2017. Treatment failure defined as clinical deterioration on such that mechanical ventilation (MV) required. Clinical parameters before after were assessed using repeated measures analysis variance. total 120 patients received (21% admissions). Primary diagnosis respiratory disease (50%), central nervous system diseases (14.2%), sepsis (10.8%), postoperative (10%). Mean duration 27.5 ±19.7 hours mean PICU length stay 6 ± days. Pneumothorax developed four patients. MV required 28 patients, subsequently, 15 deaths occurred group. is a frequently used, safe effective for requiring support PICU. Key Words: Respiratory insufficiency, Non-invasive ventilation, Paediatric unit.