Oxygen therapy is the process of administering oxygen at concentrations higher than that in room air for treating or preventing hypoxemia i.e. not enough oxygen in the blood. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a type of oxygen therapy in which the patient is placed in an airtight chamber with oxygen under pressure.

Requirement Of Oxygen Therapy Treatment

During inhalation, our body takes in oxygen and during exhalation it releases carbon dioxide. But when this process becomes inadequate, the patient may need supplemental oxygen due to decreased oxygen levels in the blood. Oxygen therapy is used to increase the oxygen saturation in tissues in patients having low saturation levels as a result of illness or injury. This therapy increases the amount of oxygen in the blood and decreases shortness of breath. Besides hypoxemia, oxygen therapy is also used to treat conditions such as acute asthma or pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease including chronic bronchitis, emphysema and chronic asthma, pulmonary hypertension and acute myocardial infarction. It is also used for short-term therapy as in post-anesthesia recovery and in the treatment of chronic lung disease in patients. Patients with gas gangrene, air embolism, smoke inhalation, carbon monoxide poisoning and cerebral hypoxic events are treated with hyperbaric oxygen therapy. A combination of helium and oxygen, known as heliox, is used to treat patients with severe airway obstruction. It reduces the density of delivered gas and improves ventilation when there is airway obstruction. For patients with severe asthma, this treatment can be used as an emergency room procedure.