Adjust Intraoperative Oxygen Therapy for Oxygenation Reasons Only!

Oxygen delivery is a universal component of hospital care, although its ideal titration is still surprisingly elusive. Hypoxemia has well known deleterious effects on cellular and organ function and overall health. The main purpose of oxygen administration during perioperative care is to prevent or treat hypoxemia. Oxygen administration resulting in blood oxygen content in excess of physiologic needs (i.e., hyperoxemia) has been proposed to reduce the incidence of various complications, including postoperative nausea and vomiting. The first report supporting intraoperative hyperoxemia for postoperative nausea and vomiting prevention was published more than 20 yr ago.¹  Since then, the same authors and others have been investigating this possible use of intraoperative hyperoxemia in various patient populations with inconsistent results.^2,3  More recently, concerns of harm related to hyperoxemia have been suggested.⁴ 

In this issue of Anesthesiology, Markwei et al.³  examine the effect of an...