Conservative management of COVID-19 associated hypoxaemia

With appropriate esteem, we have read the article by Voshaar et al. [1] on the management of hypoxaemia related to COVID-19 pneumonia. The authors have concluded that treatment escalation in the sequence 1) supplemental oxygen; 2) nasal high-flow, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) or noninvasive ventilation (NIV); and 3) invasive mechanical ventilation resulted in low overall mortality if guided by the calculation of oxygen content in addition to the clinical presentation. We fully agree with the authors and others [2, 3] that hypoxaemia per se should not serve as the exclusive indication parameter for intubation. However, we disagree that this statement is, in any manner, supported by the data presented by Voshaar et al. [1].
This correspondence argues that the conclusion given in the article “Conservative management of COVID-19-associated hypoxaemia” is not supported by the data https://bit.ly/3qAn7la