Posted on 12/10/2023 6:56:12 PM PST by ConservativeMind
Reducing oxygen levels in critically ill children on mechanical ventilators in intensive care could save tens of young lives each year, finds a new study.
The study also found that lower levels of oxygen would reduce the number of days children spent on machines supporting organs.
Professor Mark Peters said, "Giving the minimum safe dose of anything in intensive care appears to generate the best outcomes, so we wanted to test this approach with oxygen. We found a small benefit of lower oxygen targets that is unlikely to have been due to chance. But because so many children are treated with oxygen, this has the potential to improve outcomes and reduce health care costs around the world.
Oxygen is one of the most common treatments used in emergency situations. Doctors and nurses adjust oxygen treatment based on how much oxygen their patient has in their blood. While very low oxygen levels are harmful, current research shows that slightly lower than normal levels may be the best target for very ill people.
The researchers recruited 2,040 children from 15 NHS PICUs across England and Scotland. Each of the children required a mechanical ventilator and extra oxygen on admission to the PICU.
The children, who ranged from newborn up to 16 years, were randomly allocated to one of two groups, either receiving oxygen to the standard target level (saturation "SpO2" > 94%), or a reduced oxygen target (SpO2 88%–92%). The percentages refer to the proportion of the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood that is being used.
The researchers found that the children who received the lower level of oxygen were 6% more likely to have a better outcome, either in terms of survival or the number of days spent on machines supporting their organs.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
But remember, if your 02 level drops below 92 with covid, you need to be intubated.
Clownworld…
Given that O2 makes up only 21% of the air we breathe this makes perfect sense. Our lungs are not equipped to handle pure oxygen over the long term.
A lot has to be taken into consideration when dealing with pulsox. There are factors that make the saturation different for different people. So, in visting ER’s many times in my life, I find they get real interested when a patient hits 90% or lower. When I have an asthma attack I can get in the low 80 and out comes the mask and the nubulizers. In 2015 I came into the ER in the high 70’s and I was transfered to ICU and put under a tent where I was fed O2 and albuterol for over 9 hours at which time I had a mild heart attack called a myocardial infarction. Obviously I lived to some’s consternation.
An athlete generally works anywhere from 96 to 98 on saturation. I have talked with docs and most have never seen anyone over 98%. Lung diseases like COPD, asthma, and allergies can have a direct effect on pulsox when considering a normal level. It’s like the misnomer of a normal temperature for humans at 98.6. Everyone is not always that temp, and can be higher or lower.
So running in the low 90’s may be normal for some but low for others. I’m overjoyed when I can get that. But sometimes it takes a lot of albuterol, combivent, and solu-medrol to get to in the nebulizer and at least a week of prednosone oral. Thus determining and getting to a correct pulsox can end up a long and involved crap shoot. A lot of varfiables.
wy69
As the old saying goes, too much of a good thing can be as bad as too little.
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