Comparative study of excessive oxygen therapy effects on critically ill patients’ outcome

Abstract

Introduction The use of oxygen in medicine became common around 1917 and is believed to be the most common treatment given in hospitals in the developed world. Aim of the work This study was aimed to compare and evaluate the effects of excessive oxygen therapy on severely ill patients’ prognosis and outcome. Patients and methods This study was conducted on 70 adult severely ill patients admitted to Department of Critical Care, Alexandria Main University Hospital. The selected cases were divided into two groups: control group I included 35 patients who will receive conservative oxygen therapy, and study group II included 35 patients, who will receive liberal oxygen therapy. Statistical analysis The collected data were coded, tabulated, and statistically analyzed using IBM statistical package for the social sciences statistics. Results There was no significant difference between the two groups regarding demographic data, the incidence of shock, clinical data, the vital signs and hemodynamic data, laboratory data, the ICU mortality, the sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) score, and ICU stay. Discussion In our study, it was found that there was no significant difference between the outcome in the conservative oxygen therapy group and liberal oxygen therapy. This results may be owing to the small number of patients and the short duration of treatment. Conclusion These results can be a starting point for further research studies assessing the potential beneficial effects of normoxia in critically ill patients.