Background
acute hypoxemic respiratory failure
ACUTE HYPOXEMIC RESPIRATORY FAILURE, RECRUITMENT, ACUTE RESPIRATORY DISTRESS SYNDROME
In intubated patients with moderate-to-severe acute respiratory distress syndrome, prone positioning reduces intrapulmonary shunt and generates lung recruitment, optimizes ventilation/perfusion matching, lowers alveolar dead space and reduces right ventricle afterload [In recent years, prone position has been proposed in non-intubated patients with acute hypoxemic respiratory failure, with positive effects on arterial oxygenation [Despite plenty of clinical data obtained during the COVID-19 pandemic, few available studies address the physiological effects of prone position in spontaneously breathing humans with acute hypoxemic respiratory failure [We conducted a sequential, crossover trial to comprehensively evaluate the effects of awake prone positioning on gas exchange, effort-to-breathe, lung volumes and inflation pattern in adult patients with moderate-to-severe acute hypoxemic respiratory failure undergoing high-flow nasal oxygen.