What is oxygen used for?

Medical oxygen is widely used in clinical practice to provide a basis for most modern anaesthetic techniques including pre and postoperative management.

It is used to restore the tissue oxygen tension towards normal by improving oxygen availability in a wide range of conditions such as:

• cyanosis of recent origin as a result of cardio-pulmonary disease

• surgical trauma, chest wounds and rib fracture shock, severe haemorrhage and coronary occlusion

• carbon monoxide poisoning

• hyperpyrexia

• major trauma, i.e. road traffic accidents and gunshot wounds

• in the management of sudden cardiac and respiratory arrest, whether drug induced or traumatic

• in the resuscitation of all the critically ill, when the circulation is impaired