Retrospective observational study in France including COVID-19 infected patients taken care of by the emergency medical service 83 (SAMU 83) for a secondary transport between1st March 2020 and 31th December 2021.
Since the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic situation, several modes of ventilation have been tried to correct the hypoxaemia induced by SARS-CoV-2 virus. A few recent studies have concluded that high-flow nasal oxygen therapy (OptiFlow™) is beneficial in COVID-19. All mainly conclude that the use of OptiFlow™ avoid intubations and decrease hospitalization duration in critical care services.~At the emergency medical service 83 (SAMU 83), it has been decided to extend this ventilation mode during patient secondary transfers (transfer from an intensive care unit/other hospital unit/emergency department to another hospital's intensive care unit).~The emergency medical service 83 has equipped its intensive-care ambulances with OptiFlow™ in order not to interrupt this ventilation mode during transport.~The hypothesis is that patients with a severe respiratory form of COVID-19 transported from one health facility to another by the emergency medical service 83 on high-flow nasal oxygen therapy has a reduced risk of intubation compared to the other modes of non-invasive ventilation (NIV) and High Concentration oxygen Masks (HCM).