Oxygen Treatment

Over two decades, the MRINZ Oxygen Therapy programme has explored how to best deliver oxygen therapy to patients across a wide range of chronic and acute illnesses. This programme is based on the recognition that while too little oxygen places patients at risk, too much oxygen may also have its own risks. In a series of clinical trials, MRINZ researchers have identified that oxygen therapy titrated to achieve normal physiological levels results in similar or better outcomes than the entrenched practice of high concentration therapy, regardless of need.

These novel findings have led to a worldwide paradigm change in the way oxygen is prescribed, through the ‘swimming between the flags’ concept.

This approach simplifies how clinicians administer oxygen therapy to critically ill patients, giving as much or as little oxygen as needed to keep their blood oxygen saturation within a prescribed target range and has been adopted and promoted in both local and international oxygen guidelines.

In an attempt to enhance the ability to ‘swim between the flags’, the MRINZ has been involved in the research and development of a device which automatically titrates the concentration of oxygen to ensure oxygen saturations are kept within a target range. This novel technology has the potential to revolutionise the way in which oxygen is delivered in clinical practice.

The current MRINZ oxygen programme includes the MEGA-ROX study, a 40,000-patient international study. This is the largest randomised controlled trial ever undertaken in critically ill patients and should provide the evidence required to guide the precise levels of oxygen required across a range of conditions in critically ill patients.