Oxygen conserving devices and methodologies.

Collective experience with pulmonary rehabilitation and disease management has shown that patients with lung diseases including COPD and restrictive lung diseases live a longer and more productive quality of life if they can remain active. Patients who require oxygen supplementation but can otherwise be active should have the most portable and non-encumbering systems possible. Oxygen conserving devices have made a high level of portability possible. Small gas, liquid and even some concentrators have replaced the 20 pound E cylinder with 4 and 5 pound systems. In a parallel physiological development, exercise plus oxygen increases the physiological benefits of exercise and thereby enhances the patient's ability to function in life. This paper examines available options and their mechanical and physiological foundations.