Background:

respiratory insufficiency is a syndrome with a great impact on hospital admissions, morbidity and mortality. The applicability of High-flow nasal oxygen has been the subject of interest in critically ill patients.

Objective:

to know the effectiveness of High-flow nasal oxygen as a treatment for respiratory insufficiency in adult patients admitted to the intensive care units.

Methods: systematic reviews of effectiveness using the PICO strategy and recommendations from the Joanna Briggs Institute. The survey was carried out in august 2021 using the PubMed and EBSCOhost access platforms.

Results:

583 results were identified. Six randomized clinical trials were analyzed. The selection was made after elimination of duplicates; title reading, abstract reading and full text reading according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses diagram.

Conclusion:

high-flow nasal oxygen proved to be comfortable, tolerable and effective in the treatment of hypoxemic and hypercapnic respiratory insufficiency. It was effective when compared with conventional oxygen therapy in the post-extubation of hypoxemic patients and in reducing partial pressure of carbon dioxide when compared with Non-Invasive Ventilation in hypercapnic patients.