Most potential at-home oxygen supplementation methods will aerosolize the virus and increase contagiousness nearby, and are not allowed in a healthcare setting as a result. Default to assuming this applies.
I don’t think this is correct; (almost) all at-home devices will be oxygen concentrators providing supplemental oxygen at low flow rates (majority 1-6L/min) via (low flow) nasal prongs or masks (not the non-rebreather style mask mentioned later). Clinically significant aerosolization of respiratory droplets requires higher flow—like the high flow nasal prongs (30-70L/min flow), CPAP/BiPAP machines (NIV), or high respiratory tract flows (shouting/heavy coughing/puffing from shortness of breath etc).
Part of the problem with this outbreak is that deterioration from requiring supplemental O2 to requiring intubation can be sudden, so while home oxygen would potentially free up a lot of beds/space/workload, lack of monitoring for deterioration and travel time back to the hospital would probably worsen mortality in that subgroup. I’m unsure how this risk/benefit equation would play out overall.
Ah. Then that is an error on my part because I had no prior knowledge on this topic, and assumed that rebreather oxygen masks were the default form of oxygen masks.
Thanks for the correction!
I’ve tried to update the relevant bullet-points towards what you described.
I don’t think this is correct; (almost) all at-home devices will be oxygen concentrators providing supplemental oxygen at low flow rates (majority 1-6L/min) via (low flow) nasal prongs or masks (not the non-rebreather style mask mentioned later). Clinically significant aerosolization of respiratory droplets requires higher flow—like the high flow nasal prongs (30-70L/min flow), CPAP/BiPAP machines (NIV), or high respiratory tract flows (shouting/heavy coughing/puffing from shortness of breath etc).
Part of the problem with this outbreak is that deterioration from requiring supplemental O2 to requiring intubation can be sudden, so while home oxygen would potentially free up a lot of beds/space/workload, lack of monitoring for deterioration and travel time back to the hospital would probably worsen mortality in that subgroup. I’m unsure how this risk/benefit equation would play out overall.
Ah. Then that is an error on my part because I had no prior knowledge on this topic, and assumed that rebreather oxygen masks were the default form of oxygen masks.
Thanks for the correction!
I’ve tried to update the relevant bullet-points towards what you described.