Oxygen Poisoning

Abstract

ELSEWHERE in this issue of the Journal members of the Hyperbaric Unit at Duke University Medical Center report the case of a young woman ostensibly dying of the effects of oxygen under pressure. After apparently tolerating the procedure well she had convulsions, air hunger and increasing degrees of pulmonary shunting and then died with lungs that were at autopsy typical in gross appearance (atelectasis, congestion and hyaline membranes) of those lacking pulmonary surfactant.¹ The authors properly warn of the need for caution in the application of hyperbaric oxygenation.This therapy, first used in the nineteenth century,² has undergone a renaissance . . .