Abstract
A few hypoxaemic and even less non-hypoxaemic patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) benefit from portable oxygen. For these few, selected by double-blind tests against compressed air, liquid oxygen would seem more convenient and efficient. The extra cost of treating all hypoxaemic COPD patients with liquid oxygen by displacing the oxygen concentrator is not justified on the basis of current knowledge. The application of differing oxygen delivery systems to COPD patients requires more evaluation. The selection of patients for long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT) still presents major difficulties, which reflects on the numbers of patients likely to benefit from portable oxygen. No studies have yet shown the benefit of LTOT to chronic respiratory failure in other disorders such as lung fibrosis. As the pathophysiology is quite different, extension of the use of LTOT and portable oxygen to non-COPD patients must be treated with great caution.
