High-flow nasal OXYGEN therapy

To report data of the use of high-flow nasal therapy (HFNT) in the palliative care setting.

Five hypoxaemic patients were treated by HFNT in a 1-year period in a palliative care setting, either in the last days of life or as part of an intensive treatment for a reversible cause of hypoxic dyspnoea.

Four patients had a similar clinical pattern. After starting HFNT, dyspnoea intensity decreased and oxygen saturation improved, providing a clinical improvement for a duration of 2-3 days, but after 48-72 hours, their conditions deteriorated and patients underwent palliative sedation. Indeed, one patient with pulmonary embolism and pneumonia was treated by HFNT successfully and was discharged home 2 weeks after admission.

HFNT may be helpful for severely hypoxaemic patients who are unresponsive to common measures adopted in the last weeks/days of life of patients with advanced cancer or to treat reversible conditions. The findings of this case series showed the ethical and psychological aspects of end of life, particularly for caregivers. Future studies should assess an early use of this device in combination with lower doses of opioids or as an alternative to their use.