The Oxygen Dilemma

Abstract

Elsewhere in this issue Miller, Waldhausen and Rashkind report a study of the toxic effects of oxygen at a pressure of about one atmosphere on dogs with and without cyanosis. They conclude that hypoxemia resulting from surgically induced intracardiac right-to-left shunts protects dogs from systemic but not from pulmonary damage due to oxygen. Though the experiments were necessarily conducted in animals, they seem to have been motivated by the consideration of how much oxygen one can give a cyanotic patient without doing him more harm than good. This perplexing question is important in the management of every acutely ill hypoxemic . . .