Non-invasive respiratory support in the management of COVID-19: Report of a series using a nasal CPAP mask.

Background: During peak pandemic period of COVID-19, our hospital required rapid reorganization of resources and staff during between mid-March and early April 2020. Within this interval, the hospital responded to an overwhelming rate of admissions of patients in respiratory failure, rapidly reaching over 95% of its usual inpatient bed capacity and requiring 70 extra critical care beds and at least 40 intermediate care unit beds. This created a significant shortage of materials including ventilation equipment, requiring improvised use of available resources. Aims: To describe our use of non-invasive ventilation (NIV) with the continuous positive nasal airway pressure (CPAP) device SuperNO Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of 14 inpatients receiving NIV CPAP at the Hospital Ramón y Cajal in Madrid, Spain. These were Results: All 14 patients were reviewed. Our series consisted of 11 males and three females with an average age of 61.5 years. Ten of 14 patients (71.4%) NIV CPAP patients did not require intubation or reintubation. Of the four unsuccessful cases, one required intubation, two required reintubation, and one expired. Conclusions: In a time of crisis, anesthesiologists and respiratory specialists implemented the use of NIV CPAP with SuperNO