Determining the effective pre-oxygenation interval in obstetric patients using high-flow nasal oxygen and standard flow rate facemask: a biased-coin up–down sequential allocation trial

Abstract

Using biased-coin sequential allocation, we sought to determine the effective time interval in 90% of healthy parturients to achieve a target endpoint end-tidal oxygen of ≥ 90% using standard flow rate facemask and high-flow nasal oxygen. Eighty healthy parturients were randomly assigned to standard facemask (n = 40) or high-flow nasal oxygen (n = 40) groups; half of the parturients in the high-flow nasal oxygen group also used a simple no-flow facemask to minimise air entrainment. The effective time interval for 90% of parturients to achieve the target endpoint for standard facemask was 3.6 min (95%CI 3.3–6.7 min), but could not be estimated for the high-flow nasal oxygen groups with or without an additional simple facemask, as eight minutes was insufficient to achieve the target endpoint for 55% and 92% of parturients, respectively. Furthermore, after three minutes, the target endpoint was reached by 71% in the standard facemask group vs. 0% in the high-flow nasal oxygen groups. After four minutes, the target endpoint was reached by 100% in the standard facemask, 80% in the high-flow nasal oxygen with simple facemask and 67% in the high-flow nasal oxygen groups. Beyond four minutes, there was no improvement in pre-oxygenation success using high-flow nasal oxygen. In conclusion, under the conditions of our study, the effective time interval for 90% of parturients to achieve an end-tidal oxygen ≥ 90% for standard flow rate facemask was estimated to be 3.6 min, but could not be estimated for high-flow nasal oxygen groups even after eight minutes.