The use of the high flow nasal cannula in infants and children with bronchiolitis

ABSTRACT Introduction: Bronchiolitis is one of the most common viral infections, and occurs most often in young children and infants under 2 years of age. The high flow nasal cannula system is a non-invasive system of oxygen therapy and is the basic therapeutic approach applied to newborns and infants with severe bronchiolitis. Purpose. The purpose of this Systematic Review was to investigate the use of high flow nasal cannula in neonates and infants with bronchitis. Material - Methods: For the systematic review, complete research studies were searched in the Google Scholar and PubMed electronic databases during the period January 2010 - September 2020. The keywords used were: Bronchiolitis, HFNC, High Flow Nasal Cannula, ventilation modes, infants and neonates, as well as combination of them. Results: After a critical analysis of the literature from the 150 published articles, 16 met the inclusion criteria of the study. The 13 articles compare the high flow nasal cannula system with other forms of oxygen therapy where it has been shown that the use of the former is more efficient compared to other ventilation methods. Three were evaluated clinical and laboratory features that can predict the course of the patient's disease using a high flow nasal cannula. Conclusions: A review of the current literature shows that the use of high flow nasal cannula is a safe method of oxygen therapy with potential benefit compared to older interventional and non-invasive methods.

Keywords: HFNC, high flow nasal cannula, bronchiolitis, infants,  treatment