According to a new study, oxygen therapy may not help patients in the less severe stages of COPD, a finding the researchers say may change clinical practice. A common treatment for COPD is supplemental oxygen, which is a therapy that has been proven to prolong the lives of COPD patients with severe decreases in their blood oxygen levels, says Dr Robert Wise, the corresponding author of the study. Wise adds that what has been unclear is whether the therapy benefits patients with moderately low oxygen levels either at rest or when they exert themselves.
For the study, the researchers randomly assigned 738 COPD patients to receive supplemental oxygen or not. All patients had moderately low oxygen levels in their blood, either persistently or when they were physically active. Over the following 6 years, there was no evidence that the oxygen-therapy group fared any better, according to a HealthDay report. The researchers found that the therapy did not improve a patients’ quality of life, forestall hospitalization, or lengthen their lives.
According to Wise, the study did not clearly reveal why, but he says it appears that the harmful effects of low blood oxygen may only arise at a certain threshold. As such, COPD patients with moderately low levels may not have much to gain from supplemental oxygen. However, Wise stressed that the results do not mean oxygen therapy is useless as its does help patients with more severe oxygen deficits. Also, some people with moderately low levels may benefit.
“Certain patients with exercise-induced hypoxemia may feel better with supplemental oxygen. But if you’re not receiving symptomatic benefit, talk to your doctor. Doctors and patients now have this important new evidence to use in discussing the therapy,” says Wise. Besides the lack of benefit for certain patients, Wise also says oxygen therapy, though safe, may have some drawbacks, including the potential to contribute to fires because oxygen feeds combustion and the possibility of patients tripping over equipment, which is a particular danger for the elderly.
The HealthDay report notes that both Wise and Dr Magnus Ekstrom, a respiratory medicine specialist at Sweden’s Lund University, agree that doctors and patients should discuss the pros and cons of oxygen therapy and stress that there are other treatments for COPD, such as pulmonary rehabilitation programs, medications, and nutrition counseling. Wise says, “This study does not imply there’s nothing we can do. COPD is preventable and treatable.”
Source: HealthDay
This study gives no information of who may or may not benefit from the O2. It admits some may benefit with oxygen so no change in my practice.
This headline is just flat-out irresponsible. Oxygen IS beneficial to many people with COPD…it’s not beneficial to a new cohort that has relatively normal oxygen saturation! This study, despite the hopes that were attached to it, will do very little to change current practice. Meanwhile, COPD patients across the country are literally freaking out because they see headlines like these throughout the healthcare web, and now they worry their oxygen is going to get taken away.
It’s bad enough to see these headlines in the general media, where they don’t have the scientific background to understand these studies (although they should have the sense to call in experts to help them in those cases). But we should be better than this.
I am a patient with COPD. 748 patients is not a study. When there are 1000s upon 1000s of us, why not have a real study. Following a car wreck I was put on 3l o2. Why? I couldn’t breathe. My pulmonologist left his practice so I waited for a new specialist. The new Dr abruptly took me off o2 based on this so called study. With the o2 I was more alert and awake than I’ve been in years. btw. I also have apnea and use a CPAP any time I lie down. I was always tired before my wreck with no oxygen therapy. I used my CPAP on average 12 hours per 24 hour period. With the o2 I dropped to between 7 and 8 hours and no rest period needed. I have energy I haven’t had in years. My Dr says my exhalation exchange is at 47%. Please do a wider, more comprehensive study before calling it as fact.