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Breast Surgery

Thursday 25 April 2013

Oxygen therapy in critical illness

Oxygen therapy in critical illness: precise control of arterial oxygenation and permissive hypoxemia. Critical care medicine, Feb 2013, Vol. 41(2), p.423-32.

Martin, D.S. and Grocott, M.P.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23263574?dopt=Abstract

The management of hypoxemia in critically ill patients is challenging. Whilst the harms of tissue hypoxia are well recognized, the possibility of harm from excess oxygen administration, or other interventions targeted at mitigating hypoxemia, may be inadequately appreciated. The benefits of attempting to fully reverse arterial hypoxemia may be outweighed by the harms associated with high concentrations of supplemental oxygen and invasive mechanical ventilation strategies. We propose two novel related strategies for the management of hypoxemia in critically ill patients. 

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