ESICM Talk: episode 5

ESICM Talk is a new podcasts series on noteworthy intensive care topics for your learning!

This fifth episode, powered by the ICM Journal, features Prof Mark Peters interviewing Prof Kathryn Maitland, principal investigator of the study Randomised controlled trial of oxygen therapy and high‑flow nasal therapy in African children with pneumonia.

In Africa, in children hospitalised with severe pneumonia with oxygen saturations between 80 and 91% who did not receive oxygen, mortality assessed at 48 h (1.4%) was comparable to the usual method of oxygen delivery (low-flow oxygen; LFO (2.5%)) and in those receiving high-flow nasal therapy (HFNT, 1.1%).

The potential impact of HFNT on patient-centred outcomes and on resources, particularly oxygen supplies, should stimulate further exploration particularly in children with severe pneumonia managed in low resource settings.