Effect of Oxygen Administration by a Venturi Apparatus on Arterial Blood Gas Values in Patients with Respiratory Failure

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Abstract
THE need to lessen hypoxemia during acute episodes of worsened respiratory failure in patients with chronic obstructive lung disease is generally accepted. This situation poses a special problem in oxygen therapy, whose administration, especially in an uncontrolled fashion, may lead to further deterioration of ventilation, increased acidosis and occasionally coma. "Low-flow" oxygen by nasal catheter may avert these events, but arterial oxygenation is often variable and unpredictable.1 However, more precisely controlled low concentrations of inspired oxygen might overcome these deficiencies. Recently, Campbell and Gebbie2 described a simple, inexpensive mask, the "Ventimask,"§ which operates on the Venturi principle, through which the . . .