[Medical value of a respiratory mixture of oxygen and helium (Heliox)]

Lighter and more viscous than air, the oxygen-helium mixtures (heliox), well known to respiration physiologists, are used for functional exploration in the diagnosis of airways obstructions; they are also administered to deep-sea divers. However, it is usually little known that heliox can be used as therapeutic agent in the treatment of acute respiratory distress or severe disorders of ventilation caused by obstruction (e.g. inflammation). Heliox reduces the ventilatory work and increases alveolar ventilation, thereby improving haematosis and carbon dioxide elimination. The English-speaking authors, in particular, have a large experience of oxygen-helium mixtures in the treatment of such pathologies as severe asthma, small airways obstruction, cystic fibrosis, bronchoalveolitis, post-extubation pathologies, pharyngo-laryngeal oedema and drowning. The oxygen-helium mixture, therefore, participates efficiently, simply and inaggressively in the treatment of airway obstruction and acute respiratory distress.