Research Information System
SAO PAULO MEDICAL JOURNAL, no.3, 2025 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
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, T & uuml;rkiye. 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, SpO(2) > 98% in general, or SpO(2)> 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 SpO(2 )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.