Practice of oxygen administration in patients hospitalized in internal medicine wards and intensive care units: A single-center prospective, observational study.

BACKGROUND

Oxygen is widely used to treat hypoxemia.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the frequency of inappropriate oxygen administration in patients admitted to Internal Medicine (IM) wards and intensive care units (ICU).

DESIGN AND SETTING

Single-center prospective, observational study in a tertiary university hospital in Ankara, Türkiye.

METHODS

Patients who were hospitalized in the IM wards and ICU and were receiving oxygen were recruited. Every 6 hours, the oxygenation parameters were noted, and the averages over the first 24 hours of oxygen usage were recorded. Inappropriate usage was defined as oxygen flow rates > 6 L/min in the nasal cannula and < 5 L/min and > 10 L/min in the simple face mask, application of the simple face mask in chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD) exacerbation, SpO2 > 98% in general, or SpO2 > 92% in COPD exacerbation.

RESULTS

Of the 397 patients, 20% in the IM wards and 50% of 124 in the ICU received oxygen. The oxygen method used was nasal cannula in 51%, simple face mask in 21%, and high-flow nasal cannula in 4% of the patients. Among the simple face mask applications, 46% were < 5 L/min and 5% were > 10 L/min. Among the 62% of patients with COPD exacerbations, the SpO2 was > 92%.

CONCLUSION

The frequency of oxygen use was 20% among patients hospitalized in IM wards and 50% among patients in the ICU. Almost half of the simple face mask applications were inappropriate.