ABSTRACT
Oxygen therapy is a drug regime, which may be delivered with a variety of devices and concentrations.
Key physiological principles • Used therapeutically to increase alveolar oxygen tension, by increasing the oxygen
concentration in the inspired gas above 0.21. • Oxygen therapy increases oxygen transport by insuring that hemoglobin is fully saturated
and raising the quantity of oxygen in solution in the plasma. The work of breathing required to maintain a specific arterial oxygen tension is therefore reduced (Bateman & Leach 1998).
