Studies in Oxygen Therapy With Determinations of the Blood Gases

TABLE OF CONTENTS Harmful effects produced by an insufficient oxygen supply. Evidence that an insufficient oxygen supply exists in clinical disease. Desirability of raising oxygen content of blood to normal level. Methods of administration in recent war. Method developed in this investigation. Illustrative cases of cardiac disease, bronchitis, edema of the lungs. (Pneumonia, edema of the lungs, empyema and respiratory paralysis considered in Papers II and III.) Increase in oxygen content of blood following oxygen inhalation. Clinical improvement that occurs in acute anoxemia, following oxygen inhalation. INTRODUCTION The purpose of this investigation was primarily to determine what conditions of oxygen want could be relieved by the therapeutic inhalation of oxygen. The degree of anoxemia was determined by the oxygen saturation of the arterial and venous blood. The effect of oxygen administration was thus quantitatively measured by comparison of values before and after treatment. The correlation of the oxygen