• Luciano Frassanito, Domenico L Grieco, Bruno A Zanfini, Stefano Catarci, Tommaso Rosà, Donatella Settanni, Camilla Fedele, Giovanni Scambia, Gaetano Draisci, and Massimo Antonelli.
• Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Rome, Italy; Anesthesia, Emergency and Intensive Care Medicine, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS, Rome, Italy.
• Br J Anaesth. 2023 Oct 1; 131 (4): 775785775-785.

BackgroundWe aimed at determining whether a 2-h session of high-flow nasal oxygen (HFNO) immediately after extubation improves oxygen exchange after major gynaecological surgery in the Trendelenburg position in adult female patients.MethodsIn this single-centre, open-label, randomised trial, patients who underwent major gynaecological surgery were randomised to HFNO or conventional oxygen treatment with a Venturi mask. The primary outcome was the Pao2/FiO2 ratio after 2 h of treatment. Secondary outcomes included lung ultrasound score, diaphragm thickening fraction, dyspnoea, ventilatory frequency, Paco2, the percentage of patients with impaired gas exchange (Pao2/FiO2 ≤40 kPa) after 2 h of treatment, and postoperative pulmonary complications at 30 days.ResultsA total of 83 patients were included (42 in the HFNO group and 41 in the conventional treatment group). After 2 h of treatment, median (inter-quartile range) Pao2/FiO2 was 52.9 (47.9-65.2) kPa in the HFNO group and 45.7 (36.4 -55.9) kPa in the conventional treatment group (mean difference 8.7 kPa [95% CI: 3.4 to 13.9], P=0.003). The lung ultrasound score was lower in the HFNO group than in the conventional treatment group (9 [6-10] vs 12 [10-14], P<0.001), mostly because of the difference of the score in dorsal areas (7 [6-8] vs 10 [9-10], P<0.001). The percentage of patients with impaired gas exchange was lower in the HFNO group than in the conventional treatment group (5% vs 37%, P<0.001). All other secondary outcomes were not different between groups.ConclusionsIn patients who underwent major gynaecological surgery, a pre-emptive 2-h session of HFNO after extubation improved postoperative oxygen exchange and reduced atelectasis compared with a conventional oxygen treatment strategy.Clinical Trial RegistrationNCT04566419.Copyright © 2023 British Journal of Anaesthesia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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