( Anaesthesia . 2025;80:349-352. doi: 10.1111/anae.16564.) This editorial discusses the article by Zhou et al that investigates the effectiveness of high-flow nasal oxygen (HFNO) compared with facemask oxygen for preoxygenation in obese pregnant women undergoing elective caesarean delivery under general anesthesia. Preoxygenation is critical in the obstetric population due to the rapid oxygen desaturation following anesthesia induction, a consequence of physiological changes in pregnancy and exacerbated by obesity. HFNO is being increasingly used for this purpose, though its application in obstetric populations is based mainly on data from other groups.
Lyons et al. (Sun,) studied this question.