Introduction
Oxygen is one of the most common and inexpensive treatment components in
today’s world of modern medicine. It is the most essential medicinal gas
available in majority of the hospitals and highly beneficial when used
in appropriate amounts. However, it must be acknowledged that too much
of anything tends to do more harm than good, and even oxygen therapy is
no exception.
When one talks about oxygen, hypoxia and hypoxemia are two such
terminologies often encountered and used interchangeably. It is of
paramount importance to note that these two terminologies, though they
may overlap are not synonymous. Hypoxia is a state of insufficient
amount of oxygen in the tissues whereas hypoxemia is a decreased amount
of oxygen content in the blood. Hypoxemia may often go unnoticed, and
when homeostatic mechanisms no longer compensate, can lead to
hypoxia.(1)
With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, oxygen utilization has been on the
rise worldwide, with some countries often experiencing scarcity in such
crucial times.(2) The goal of oxygen therapy in COVID-19, as with any
other form of respiratory illness, is to treat hypoxia. The WHO has
classified severe COVID-19 to have saturations less than 90% and thus
warranting supplemental oxygen therapy.(3) In an effort to treat the
hypoxia, prolonged oxygen therapy may lead to pathophysiological
processes associated with increased levels of hyperoxia-induced reactive
oxygen species (ROS) which may readily react with surrounding biological
tissues causing protein denaturation and breaking down of nucleic acids
into strands.(4) Here, we describe a case of a patient with COVID-19
treated at our hospital.