Abstract
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.
Footnotes
- Correspondence: John E Heffner MD, Providence Portland Medical Center, 5050 NE Hoyt Street, Suite 540, Portland, OR 97213. E-mail: john_heffner{at}mac.com.
Dr Heffner presented a version of this paper at the 50th Respiratory Care Journal Conference, “Oxygen,” held April 13–14, 2012, in San Francisco, California.
The author has disclosed no conflicts of interest.
↵* David J Pierson MD FAARC, Emeritus, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Harborview Medical Center, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.
- Copyright © 2013 by Daedalus Enterprises Inc.
