Oxygen Blending is Urgently Needed in Resource-Limited Settings

Abstract

Oxygen therapy was first used to treat hypoxemia from pneumonia 240 years ago.1 Since then, our understanding of oxygen’s physiological effects has evolved considerably. In the 1930s, Dr Julius Hess created an enclosed oxygen chamber to care for premature infants.2 Though the device was relatively crude, it laid the foundation for future advances in pediatric oxygen administration. In the following decades, technological improvements led to the development of commercially available oxygenated incubators, which became widely used to treat hypoxic infants.