LAUSR

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an emerging infectious disease and has been reported from more than 200 countries. Severe illness is marked by the development of dyspnea, hypoxemia, and progression to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) within one week of onset of symptoms. The most documented reason for admission to the intensive care unit has been the need for respiratory support. Among these, around two-thirds of patients meet the criteria for ARDS.1 Care of critically-ill patients of COVID-19 is resource-intensive, which may become the bottleneck of management. Apart from the low tidal volume ventilation, and prone positioning (PP) in severe ARDS, none of the other approaches have been shown to reduce mortality conclusively. PP has been shown to increase the average ratio of arterial oxygen tension to the fraction of inspired oxygen (PaO2/FiO2) by 35 mmHg. 2