Variability of oxygen requirements in critically ill COVID-19 patients

Samuel F Huth, Alexander Rothkopf, Lisa Smith, Nicole White, Gianluigi Li Bassi, Jacky Y Suen, John F Fraser, COVID-19 Critical Care Consortium

Background
The global scarcity of medical oxygen has proven to be catastrophic during the surges in COVID-19 cases over the past two years, with the heaviest burden felt in low- and middle-income countries. Despite its criticality, data and analyses of oxygen consumption, even for typical clinical cases, are missing. Consequently, planning oxygen needs, particularly with variable surges in COVID-19 cases, has presented a substantial challenge to policymakers and hospital decision-makers.

Lead author Dr Sam Huth said the study derived estimates of oxygen demand from a large global database of granular ICU data.

“When scaled up based on hospital capacity and disease severity, this may assist healthcare professionals to more accurately prepare for oxygen demand surge scenarios in future, including the next epidemic.”