The role of oxygen therapy

Oxygen therapy is a relatively common treatment technology at present. It mainly causes discomfort, pain and burning sensation under the sternum, and the respiratory system will continue to accelerate. Severe patients will have symptoms of dry cough. In terms of treatment, it is necessary to have relevant understanding and knowledge of the patient's physical constitution, and to know the true meaning of the problem, so that we can understand and treat it more intuitively.

Common side effects of oxygen therapy include:

1. Oxygen poisoning: It is characterized by changes in the lung parenchyma.

The main symptoms include discomfort, pain, and burning sensation under the sternum, followed by increased breathing, nausea, vomiting, irritability, and dry cough.

Preventive measures include avoiding long-term, high-concentration oxygen therapy and performing blood gas analysis frequently, and dynamically observing the therapeutic effect of oxygen therapy.

2. Atelectasis: After inhaling high-concentration oxygen, a large amount of nitrogen in the alveoli is replaced. Once the bronchus is blocked, the oxygen in the alveoli is rapidly absorbed by the pulmonary circulation, causing inhalation atelectasis.

The main symptoms are irritability, increased breathing and heart rate, increased blood pressure, followed by difficulty breathing, cyanosis, and coma.

Preventive measures: Encourage patients to take deep breaths, cough more often and change lying position and posture frequently to prevent blockage of secretions.

3. Dry respiratory secretions: humidification and atomization inhalation should be strengthened. Oxygen is a dry gas and can dry out the respiratory mucosa when inhaled.

The main symptoms are thick respiratory secretions that are difficult to cough up and impair ciliary motility.

Precautions: Oxygen must be humidified before inhalation to reduce irritation.

4. Hyperplasia of posterior lens fibrous tissue: only seen in newborns, more common in premature infants.

The main symptoms are retinal vasoconstriction, retinal fibrosis, and finally irreversible blindness.

Preventive measures should control oxygen concentration and oxygen inhalation time.

5. Respiratory depression: seen in patients with type II respiratory failure (decreased PaO2, increased PaCO2). Since PaCO2 remains at a high level for a long time, the respiratory center loses its sensitivity to carbon dioxide, and respiratory regulation mainly relies on the stimulation of hypoxia on the peripheral chemoreceptors. Inhalation of high-concentration oxygen relieves the stimulating effect of hypoxia on respiration, aggravates the depression of the respiratory center, and even causes respiratory arrest.

The main symptom is respiratory depression.

Preventive measures: Patients with type II respiratory failure should be given low-concentration, low-flow (1-2 L/min) oxygen to maintain PaO2 at 8 kPa.