That's a fair statement, the bubonic plague killed about 25 million
people, think of the savings the NHS would make. Seriously though I have
never seen any COPD patient suffer through being given to much O2.
Obviously we only have them short term and don't get to see any clinical
follow up. We were always told that the use of O2 on COPD patients at a
high rate would only be detrimental long term, and by that I mean over
1-2 hours. In my part of the world we generally only have the patient
for 30-40 mins max so it has never been considered a problem.
Mark Parsons - Paramedic, Sussex.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Bailey" <[log in to unmask]>
To: "a&e group" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: 12 July 2000 03:09
Subject: Oxygen administration in COPD
I attended an emergency medicine conference in London earlier this year
where two Professors of Respiratory Medicine [one from London, the other
from Liverpool] gave lectures addressing the early management of COPD.
Unfortunately, but amusingly, the second speaker did not hear the first
and
completely contradicted him re what FiO2 should initially be used
[pre-hospital and in A&E]when treating patients with respiratory
distress
and a history of COPD. In a nutshell the 1st speaker advocated as much
oxygen as possible initially with a reduction as more clinical
information
became available in A&E with ABG analysis, CXR etc. The 2nd speaker
became
very agitated when this was suggested after his lecture and claimed such
treatment kills more elderly patients with COPD via hypercarbia and
acidosis
than the Bubonic Plague did in the Middle Ages.
Any thoughts from you chaps who manage this problem for real on a
regular
basis?
Bill Bailey
A&E Consultant, Nth Derbyshire
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