About the PhD thesis

Infection with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can lead to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which primarily affects the lungs. In severe cases, patients require ad-mission to intensive care units (ICUs) and treatment with supplemental oxygen to survive.
The global spread of SARS-CoV-2 in late 2019 triggered a pandemic that heavily strained health systems worldwide, causing shortages of ICU beds and medical oxygen. Consequently, determining the optimal oxygen dosage became critical to ensure effective treatment and re-source utilisation in ICUs.

Medical oxygen should be carefully dosed to maintain adequate levels in the body, while avoiding the adverse effects of both excessive and insufficient doses. During the COVID-19 pandemic, general guidelines have been the only available directives on oxygen targeting for se-verely ill patients in ICUs, due to a lack of evidence from clinical trials.
This PhD thesis aims to evaluate the clinical pros and cons of two dif-ferent oxygenation targets in adult patients admitted to ICUs with COVID-19 and acute hypoxemic respiratory failure. This issue was ex-plored through the large randomized clinical trial, Handling Oxygena-tion Targets in COVID-19 (HOT-COVID).

After the defense there will be held a reception. All are welcome.