High Flow Humidified Oxygen in Paediatric Severe Asthma (HOPSA (HOPSA)

Research summary

Asthma affects 1 in 11 UK children; one of the commonest reasons children attend hospital emergency departments is for an asthma attack. Many children do not respond to initial treatment (high dose inhalers) and need extra treatment: this usually requires a needle placed into a vein (intravenous therapy), which has unpleasant side effects. High flow humidified oxygen (HiFlo) delivers lots of moist air with added oxygen, through short soft tubes fitting into the nostrils. It helps with breathing and keeps the airways open and moist. It is more comfortable than other ways to support breathing and has a good safety record. Our aim is to find out whether starting HiFlo early on speeds up recovery from a severe asthma attack and reduces the need for unpleasant intravenous therapy. We carried out a small trial which showed that this study is feasible, told us how many children and hospitals will be needed to get a clear answer on whether using early HiFlo is beneficial for children with a severe asthma attack. The trial will involve 218 children (aged 2–18 years) who come to hospital with a severe asthma attack. Half the children will receive early HiFlo as extra therapy and half will receive usual care. No extra blood tests will be needed. We will compare children on early HiFlo with those receiving usual care. We will see whether they need less intravenous treatment, improve more rapidly, are ready to go home sooner, and experience less distress and side effects. Because emergency treatment needs to move quickly, and children and parents are often very distressed, we will let families know the research is taking place and will start study treatment straight away. We will approach families for consent to use their data for the research when the emergency has passed, usually the next working day.

Principal Investigator

Dr Stephanie Davis

Contact us

Email: emergency.research@oxnet.nhs.uk

IRAS number

344459