Oxygen Therapy in Critical Illness: Friend or Foe? A Review of Oxygen Therapy in Selected Acute Illnesses

Abstract

In recent years there has been a gradual shift away from using uncontrolled high concentrations of inspired oxygen in some acute illnesses. Oxygen is perhaps the most frequently used drug in medicine, and understanding the balance of benefits and harms is essential knowledge for all anaesthetists and intensivists. While current teaching and practice emphasise avoiding hypoxaemia over concerns about hyperoxaemia, it may transpire that oxygen excess is more harmful than previously thought. As with many interventions in intensive care medicine, striving to achieve physiological normality may sometimes do more harm than good, and tolerance of abnormal values may on occasion be in patients' best interests. Incorporating Single Best Answers (see page 197: answers on page 237).

Keywords

oxygen therapy hypoxaemia intensive care ARDS permissive hypoxaemia precise control of arterial oxygenation

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