Continuous positive airway pressure in Covid-19 patients with moderate-to-severe respiratory failure.

CPAP can be successfully used in a number of Covid-19 patients having hypoxemic respiratory failure with gas exchange and radiological findings similar to those generally considered as indications for invasive mechanically ventilation Non-invasive ventilation (NIV) and continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) are recommended for acute hypoxemic respiratory failure (AHRF) due to cardiogenic pulmonary oedema but no recommendation has been made for viral pandemics, because of lack of randomised studies showing their efficacy and concerns of infection dissemination [1] Early after Covid-19 outbreak in Italy, there was an expert consensus in favour of CPAP and NIV as first-line treatments for the associated AHRF [2] However, few studies used unspecified NIV in a minority of patients without detailed results [3–5] CPAP was the object of two short reports with differing results [6, 7] Thus, their value in Covid-19 remains to be established eng Dr Corradi has nothing to disclose Conflict of interest: Dr Di Domenico has nothing to disclose Conflict of interest: Dr Raggi has nothing to disclose Conflict of interest: Dr Timossi has nothing to disclose Conflict of interest: Dr Santori has nothing to disclose Conflict of interest: Dr Brusasco has nothing to disclose