What are COPD & ILD?
COPD is a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease that is visible through symptoms that include breathlessness, difficulty in breathing, coughing, excessive mucus production, confusion, and weight loss due to weakness.
An important thing to remember is that chronic bronchitis and emphysema both reduce the ability of the lung to have a proper gaseous exchange. The situation can lead to respiratory failure in severe cases. Both the exchange of oxygen from the air to the blood and the transfer of carbon from the blood into the air are hindered.
ILD on the other includes a plethora of interstitial lung diseases that basically damage the internal structure of the lungs and make it difficult for the gaseous exchange to take place. Pulmonary fibrosis is also a part of these diseases.
Considering that both of the disease varieties make it difficult to breathe easily, patients are prescribed supplemental oxygen therapy in both cases. Supplemental oxygen therapy improves pulmonary health and saves tissues from hypoxia.
Home Oxygen Therapy Comes in Many Types for COPD & ILD
Supplemental oxygen therapy can be:
Short Term Oxygen Therapy: Given to the patient for their hypoxemia at the time of release from hospital.
Long Term Oxygen Therapy: Given when the oxygen level does not rise above the minimum 88% threshold. The patient uses oxygen device for more than 14 hours per day.
Ambulatory Oxygen Therapy: Prescribed for the patients who want to move about outside, these patients develop hypoxemia only on exertion. The oxygen device tends to improve their pulmonary health.
Palliative Oxygen Therapy: Prescribed to improve the state of breathlessness in patients suffering from diseases that limit their lives.
Nocturnal Oxygen Therapy: Only prescribed for the hypoxemia at night time, most likely caused by sleep apnea.
What are the Patient Factors that make a Patient Good Recipient of HOT?
COPD and ILD patients have different levels of hypoxemia. With the different level of severity, the effect of treatment with an oxygen device differs.
Patients with COPD getting Oxygen Concentrator for HOT
Eligible COPD patients are more likely to benefit if they have severe level of oxygen deficiency. The oxygen therapy with an oxygen concentrator brings up the SpO2 levels in normal range. Studies have pointed out that the patients with milder forms of hypoxemia do not get a good result from the use of oxygen tanks for long term.
Patients with ILD in Oxygen Therapy
ILD patients actually have a lower level of oxygen in daytime as well as night time. The patient’s oxygen levels come up during the time that they consume oxygen via their oxygen tank. The oxygen level surge is helpful during the daily activities.
Is there any Benefit of Using Medical Oxygen Concentrator Devices in these Patients?
Noted Benefits in the COPD Patients
Patients discover that they can get more exercise in when they are hooked to their oxygen concentrator as a part of the ambulatory oxygen therapy. The long term oxygen therapy helps them maintain their blood oxygen levels throughout the day and that automatically increases the quality of their life.
ILD and Oxygen Therapy Benefits
Similar to the patients suffering from COPD, the patients with ILD felt that their exercising capacity increased. These patients did not feel constant breathlessness and as a result they could exercise for longer times.
Common Issues that Reduce the Effectiveness of Oxygen Concentrator Device Therapies
Time and again the studies show that the patients from both the groups that did and didn’t received the oxygen therapy remained the same. In the interest of promoting better pulmonary healthcare, studies started noting the issue of patients not sticking to their treatment. There are apparently two main reasons why the patients had ineffective oxygen therapy.
Expensive or Unavailable Oxygen Generating Devices:
Oxygen concentrators from all the name brands are simply pretty expensive. Patients rely on their doctors to guide them to good alternatives. A better indexing of good and affordable oxygen concentrator devices and oxygen tanks would help the patients keep on using oxygen as prescribed. Patients get extra careful towards oxygen tank use because they know that the gas inside is limited hence it is better that they opt for an oxygen generating device.
Wrong Prescriptions for Supplemental Oxygen Therapy:
What happens when the patient is getting oxygen that is unable to meet their needs? They start feeling that it is ineffective as drug. There is a need for better oxygen testing in pulmonary healthcare. The pulse oximeters are not as reliable as they were once thought. The arterial blood gas assessment should be taken as more important in these scenarios to avoid incorrect prescriptions. Another variety of patient gets an incorrect prescription of oxygen device for hypoxemia when they don’t have it and so they don’t actually feel better with the use of an oxygen concentrator.
Should Supplemental Oxygen Therapy as Like Home Oxygen Therapy be Prescribed to COPD and ILD Patients?
Studies have revealed that doctors and other healthcare decision makers need to be careful when prescribing oxygen as a drug. The most notable thing in the case of COPD patients was that oxygen therapy with an oxygen concentrator or an oxygen device like oxygen cylinder is good for the patient health. Patients live long enough to get benefits out of the use. The effect of oxygen therapy during night time is yet to be fully understood in COPD patients.
On the other hand patients of Interstitial Lungs Disease are given the device to breath easily even when the oxygen has no time to provide long-term benefits. ILD is rapid in its destruction of human life. However it will be unfair to take away the option of oxygen devices from these patients. The oxygen generators help the patients breath without leaving them in bouts of coughing.
In both the disease categories, the main issue include patient retention, and proper prescription of the supplemental oxygen therapy. The medical oxygen concentrators and portable oxygen concentrators need proper prescription and later proper titration of oxygen for a successful treatment.
Sanai Health’s Oxygen Concentrators for Medical Use
Patients can easily avail oxygen therapy via portable oxygen concentrators and other medical oxygen generators from Sanai Health. As an affordable pulmonary healthcare, Sanai Health provides the best quality in great prices. The variety of oxygen machines manufactured by Sanai Health ensures that there is something to help out every patient.
