[Home oxygen therapy using liquid oxygen system]

Home oxygen therapy (HOT) for patients with chronic respiratory failure has been believed to increase the quality of life and to improve the prognosis of such patients. In Japan, HOT for chronic respiratory failure has been supported by health insurance since March 1985. Since then, patients with HOT have increased progressively, and it has been reported that there are now over 20,000 patients with HOT. The oxygen concentrator which extracts oxygen from atmospheric air has been commonly used as the oxygen delivery system. Recently the liquid oxygen system has provided an attractive, convenient source of oxygen. Since April 1990, HOT using liquid oxygen system has been supported by health insurance, and its use will become widespread in Japan. A major characteristic of this system is that oxygen condensed into a liquid form allows storage of a larger supply. This system consists of two parts: stationary type which stores the liquid oxygen, and a portable type which can easily be refilled with oxygen a larger source. In the present study, we examined the efficacy of portable liquid oxygen in 50 patients with chronic pulmonary diseases including patients with chronic respiratory failure who had PaO2 < 55 mmHg during air breathing. We measured changes of ten minutes walking distance (10 MD) and blood gas analysis with and without portable liquid oxygen. We also performed on estimation of efficacy of liquid oxygen by questionnaires in patients receiving liquid oxygen for HOT. We did not find a significant improvement of 10 MD with portable liquid oxygen, but found a significant improvement of arterial oxygen tension at the end of walking.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)