Oxygen was known to be the only element that supports respiration as early as 1800 and was first used in the medical field in 1810. However, it took about 150 years for the gas to be used throughout medicine. In the early to mid 20thcentury oxygen therapy became rational and scientific, and today modern medicine could not be practiced without the support that oxygen supplies. |
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Most living things need oxygen to survive and oxygen's importance in the field of healthcare cannot be underestimated.Oxygen is widely used in every healthcare setting, with applications from resuscitation to inhalation therapy.
Applications and Uses :-
- Oxygen is widely used in emergency medicine, both in hospital and by emergency medical services or advanced first aiders
- high flow oxygen is definitively indicated for use in resuscitation, major trauma, anaphylaxis, major haemorrhage, shock, active convulsions and hypothermia
- provide a basis for virtually all modern anaesthetic techniques
- restore tissue oxygen tension by improving oxygen availability in a wide range of conditions such as COPD, cyanosis, shock, severe hemorrhage, carbon monoxide poisoning, major trauma, cardiac/respiratory arrest
- aid resuscitation
- provide life support for artificially ventilated patients
- reduce incidence of surgical wound infection
- aid cardiovascular stability
- used to treat victims of carbon monoxide poisoning
- used to destroy bacteria
Contraindications / Side effects :-
There are no absolute contraindications to the use of oxygen but the inspired concentration should be limited in the case of premature infants and those patients with chronic bronchitis and emphysema. However guidelines have been published by the British Thoracic Society (BTS) on the safe therapeutic use of medical oxygen, which encourages proper assessment of the patient before use. Compressed medical oxygen toxicity may manifest itself in the following ways :-
- retrolenticular fibroplasia in premature infants exposed to oxygen concentrations greater than 40%
- convulsions appear after a few hours exposure to medical oxygen at pressures above 3bar(g)
- retrosternal soreness associated with coughing and breathing difficulties, made worse by smoking and exposure to cold air after breathing pure medical oxygen at atmospheric pressure for several hours