PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Heffner, John E
TI  - The Story of Oxygen
AID  - 10.4187/respcare.01831
DP  - 2013 Jan 01
TA  - Respiratory Care
PG  - 18--31
VI  - 58
IP  - 1
4099  - http://rc.rcjournal.com/content/58/1/18.short
4100  - http://rc.rcjournal.com/content/58/1/18.full
AB  - The history of oxygen from discovery to clinical application for patients with chronic lung disease represents a long and storied journey. Within a relatively short period, early investigators not only discovered oxygen but also recognized its importance to life and its role in respiration. The application of oxygen to chronic lung disease, however, took several centuries. In the modern era, physiologists pursued the chemical nature of oxygen and its physiologic interaction with cellular metabolism and gas transport. It took brazen clinicians, however, to pursue oxygen as a therapeutic resource for patients with chronic lung disease because of the concern in the 20th century of the risks of oxygen toxicity. Application of ambulatory oxygen devices allowed landmark investigations of the long-term effects of continuous oxygen that established its safety and efficacy. Although now well established for hypoxic patients, many questions remain regarding the benefits of oxygen for varying severity and types of chronic lung disease.