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Oxygen toxicity is a condition resulting from the harmful effects of breathing molecular oxygen () at increased . Severe cases can result in cell damage and death, with effects most often seen in the central nervous system, , and eyes. Historically, the central nervous system condition was called the Paul Bert effect, and the pulmonary condition the Lorrain Smith effect, after the researchers who pioneered the discoveries and descriptions in the late 19th century. Oxygen toxicity is a concern for underwater divers, those on high concentrations of supplemental oxygen, and those undergoing hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
The result of breathing increased partial pressures of oxygen is hyperoxia, an excess of oxygen in body tissues. The body is affected in different ways depending on the type of exposure. Central nervous system toxicity is caused by short exposure to high partial pressures of oxygen at greater than atmospheric pressure. Pulmonary and ocular toxicity result from longer exposure to increased oxygen levels at normal pressure. Symptoms may include disorientation, breathing problems, and vision changes such as myopia. Prolonged exposure to above-normal oxygen partial pressures, or shorter exposures to very high partial pressures, can cause oxidative damage to cell membranes, collapse of the alveoli in the lungs, retinal detachment, and seizures. Oxygen toxicity is managed by reducing the exposure to increased oxygen levels. Studies show that, in the long term, a robust recovery from most types of oxygen toxicity is possible.
Protocols for avoidance of the effects of hyperoxia exist in fields where oxygen is breathed at higher-than-normal partial pressures, including underwater diving using compressed breathing gases, hyperbaric medicine, neonatal care and human spaceflight. These protocols have resulted in the increasing rarity of seizures due to oxygen toxicity, with pulmonary and ocular damage being largely confined to the problems of managing premature infants.
In recent years, oxygen has become available for recreational use in . The US Food and Drug Administration has warned those who have conditions such as heart or lung disease not to use oxygen bars. Scuba divers use breathing gases containing up to 100% oxygen, and should have specific training in using such gases.
Central nervous system oxygen toxicity can cause seizures, brief periods of rigidity followed by convulsions and unconsciousness, and is of concern to divers who encounter greater than atmospheric pressures. Pulmonary oxygen toxicity results in damage to the lungs, causing pain and difficulty in breathing. Oxidative damage to the eye may lead to myopia or partial detachment of the retina. Pulmonary and ocular damage are most likely to occur when supplemental oxygen is administered as part of a treatment, particularly to newborn infants, but are also a concern during hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
Oxidative damage may occur in any cell in the body but the effects on the three most susceptible organs will be the primary concern. It may also be implicated in damage to red blood cells (haemolysis), the liver, Cardiac muscle, (, , and thyroid), or , and general damage to cells.
In unusual circumstances, effects on other tissues may be observed: it is suspected that during spaceflight, high oxygen concentrations may contribute to bone damage. Hyperoxia can also indirectly cause carbon dioxide narcosis in patients with lung ailments such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or with central respiratory depression. Hyperventilation of atmospheric air at atmospheric pressures does not cause oxygen toxicity, because sea-level air has a partial pressure of oxygen of whereas toxicity does not occur below .
| + Oxygen poisoning at in the dry in 36 subjects in order of performance | ||
| 96 | 1 | Prolonged dazzle; severe spasmodic vomiting |
| 60–69 | 3 | Severe lip-twitching; euphoria; nausea and vertigo; arm twitch |
| 50–55 | 4 | Severe lip-twitching; dazzle; blubbering of lips; fell asleep; dazed |
| 31–35 | 4 | Nausea, vertigo, lip-twitching; convulsed |
| 21–30 | 6 | Convulsed; drowsiness; severe lip-twitching; epigastric aura; twitch L arm; amnesia |
| 16–20 | 8 | Convulsed; vertigo and severe lip twitching; epigastric aura; spasmodic respiration; |
| 11–15 | 4 | Inspiratory predominance; lip-twitching and syncope; nausea and confusion |
| 6–10 | 6 | Dazed and lip-twitching; paraesthesiae; vertigo; "Diaphragmatic spasm"; severe nausea |
Under normal or reduced ambient pressures, the effects of hyperoxia are initially restricted to the lungs, which are directly exposed, but after prolonged exposure or at hyperbaric pressures, other organs can be at risk. At normal partial pressures of inhaled oxygen, most of the oxygen transported in the blood is carried by haemoglobin, but the amount of dissolved oxygen will increase at partial pressures of arterial oxygen exceeding , when oxyhemoglobin saturation is nearly complete. At higher concentrations the effects of hyperoxia are more widespread in the body tissues beyond the lungs.
At partial pressures of oxygen of —100% oxygen at 2 to 3 times atmospheric pressure—these symptoms may begin as early as 3 hours into exposure to oxygen. Experiments on rats breathing oxygen at pressures between suggest that pulmonary manifestations of oxygen toxicity may not be the same for normobaric conditions as they are for hyperbaric conditions. Evidence of decline in lung function as measured by pulmonary function testing can occur as quickly as 24 hours of continuous exposure to 100% oxygen, with evidence of diffuse alveolar damage and the onset of acute respiratory distress syndrome usually occurring after 48 hours on 100% oxygen. Breathing 100% oxygen also eventually leads to collapse of the alveoli (atelectasis), while—at the same partial pressure of oxygen—the presence of significant partial pressures of inert gases, typically nitrogen, will prevent this effect.
Preterm newborns are known to be at higher risk for bronchopulmonary dysplasia with extended exposure to high concentrations of oxygen. Other groups at higher risk for oxygen toxicity are patients on mechanical ventilation with exposure to levels of oxygen greater than 50%, and patients exposed to chemicals that increase risk for oxygen toxicity such the chemotherapeutic agent bleomycin. Therefore, current guidelines for patients on mechanical ventilation in intensive care recommend keeping oxygen concentration less than 60%. Likewise, divers who undergo treatment of decompression sickness are at increased risk of oxygen toxicity as treatment entails exposure to long periods of oxygen breathing under hyperbaric conditions, in addition to any oxygen exposure during the dive.
has occurred in closed circuit oxygen rebreather divers with prolonged exposures. It also occurs frequently in those undergoing repeated hyperbaric oxygen therapy. This is due to an increase in the refractive power of the lens, since axial length and [[keratometry|Keratometer]] readings do not reveal a [[cornea]]l or length basis for a myopic shift. It is usually reversible with time.
A possible side effect of hyperbaric oxygen therapy is the initial or further development of , which are an increase in opacity of the lens of the eye which reduces visual acuity, and can eventually result in blindness. This is a rare event, associated with lifetime exposure to raised oxygen concentration, and may be under-reported as it develops very slowly, and cataracts are a common disorder of advanced age. The cause is not fully understood, but evidence suggests that raised oxygen levels at the lens may be caused by deterioration of the vitreous humour due to age, and this causes degradation of lens crystallins by cross-linking, forming aggregates capable of scattering light. This may be an end-state development of the more commonly observed myopic shift associated with hyperbaric treatment.
While all the reaction mechanisms of these species within the body are not yet fully understood, one of the most reactive products of oxidative stress is the hydroxyl radical (), which can initiate a damaging chain reaction of lipid peroxidation in the unsaturated lipids within cell membranes. High concentrations of oxygen also increase the formation of other , such as nitric oxide, peroxynitrite, and trioxidane, which harm DNA and other biomolecules. Although the body has many antioxidant systems such as glutathione that guard against oxidative stress, these systems are eventually overwhelmed at very high concentrations of free oxygen, and the rate of cell damage exceeds the capacity of the systems that prevent or repair it. Cell damage and cell death then result.
Diagnosis of bronchopulmonary dysplasia in newborn infants with breathing difficulties is difficult in the first few weeks. However, if the infant's breathing does not improve during this time, blood tests and x-rays may be used to confirm bronchopulmonary dysplasia. In addition, an echocardiogram can help to eliminate other possible causes such as congenital heart defects or pulmonary arterial hypertension.
The diagnosis of retinopathy of prematurity in infants is typically suggested by the clinical setting. Prematurity, low birth weight, and a history of oxygen exposure are the principal indicators, while no hereditary factors have been shown to yield a pattern.
The risk of seizure appears to be a function of dose – a cumulative combination of partial pressure and duration. The threshold for oxygen partial pressure below which seizures never occur has not been established, and may depend on many variables, some of them personal. The risk to a specific person can vary considerably depending on individual sensitivity, level of exercise, and carbon dioxide retention, which is influenced by work of breathing.
In some diver training courses for modes of diving in which exposure may reach levels with significant risk, divers are taught to plan and monitor what is called the 'oxygen clock' of their dives. This is a notional alarm clock, which ticks more quickly at increased oxygen pressure and is set to activate at the maximum single exposure limit recommended in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Diving Manual. For the following partial pressures of oxygen the limits are: 45 minutes at , 120 minutes at , 150 minutes at , 180 minutes at and 210 minutes at , but it is impossible to predict with any reliability whether or when toxicity symptoms will occur. Many nitrox-capable calculate an oxygen loading and can track it across multiple dives. The aim is to avoid activating the alarm by reducing the partial pressure of oxygen in the breathing gas or by reducing the time spent breathing gas of greater oxygen partial pressure. As the partial pressure of oxygen increases with the fraction of oxygen in the breathing gas and the depth of the dive, the diver obtains more time on the oxygen clock by diving at a shallower depth, by breathing a less oxygen-rich gas, or by shortening the duration of exposure to oxygen-rich gases. This function is provided by some technical diving decompression computers and rebreather control and monitoring hardware.
Diving below on air would expose a diver to increasing danger of oxygen toxicity as the partial pressure of oxygen exceeds , so a gas mixture should be used which contains less than 21% oxygen (termed a hypoxic mixture). Increasing the proportion of nitrogen is not viable, since it would produce a strongly narcotic mixture. However, helium is not narcotic, and a usable mixture may be Gas blending either by completely replacing nitrogen with helium (the resulting mix is called heliox), or by replacing part of the nitrogen with helium, producing a trimix.
Pulmonary oxygen toxicity is an entirely avoidable event while diving. The limited duration and naturally intermittent nature of most diving makes this a relatively rare (and even then, reversible) complication for divers. Established guidelines enable divers to calculate when they are at risk of pulmonary toxicity. In saturation diving it can be avoided by limiting the oxygen content of gas in living areas to below 0.4 bar.
The variability in tolerance and other variable factors such as workload have resulted in the U.S. Navy abandoning screening for oxygen tolerance. Of the 6,250 oxygen-tolerance tests performed between 1976 and 1997, only 6 episodes of oxygen toxicity were observed (0.1%).
The oxygen tolerance test used by the Indian Navy, which follows recommendations of the US Navy and US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is to breathe 100% oxygen delivered by BIBS mask at an ambient pressure of 2.8 bar absolute (18 msw) for 30 minutes, at rest in a dry hyperbaric chamber. No symptoms of CNS oxygen toxicity may be observed by the attendant.
Vitamin E and selenium were proposed and later rejected as a potential method of protection against pulmonary oxygen toxicity. There is however some experimental evidence in rats that vitamin E and selenium aid in preventing in vivo lipid peroxidation and free radical damage, and therefore prevent retinal changes following repetitive hyperbaric oxygen exposures.
Retinopathy of prematurity is largely preventable by screening. Current guidelines require that all babies of less than 32 weeks gestational age or having a birth weight less than should be screened for retinopathy of prematurity at least every two weeks. The National Cooperative Study in 1954 showed a causal link between supplemental oxygen and retinopathy of prematurity, but subsequent curtailment of supplemental oxygen caused an increase in infant mortality. To balance the risks of hypoxia and retinopathy of prematurity, modern protocols now require monitoring of blood oxygen levels in premature infants receiving oxygen.
Careful titration of dosage to minimise delivered concentration while achieving the desired level of oxygenation will both minimise the risk of oxygen toxicity damage and the amount of oxygen used for long term therapy. A typical target for oxygen saturation when receiving oxygen therapy, would be in the range of 91-95%, in both term and preterm infants.
A seizure underwater requires that the diver be brought to the surface as soon as practicable. Although for many years the recommendation has been not to raise the diver during the seizure itself, owing to the danger of arterial gas embolism (AGE), there is some evidence that the glottis does not fully obstruct the airway. This has led to the current recommendation by the Diving Committee of the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society that a diver should be raised during the seizure's clonic (convulsive) phase if the regulator is not in the diver's mouth—as the danger of drowning is then greater than that of AGE—but the ascent should be delayed until the end of the clonic phase otherwise. Rescuers ensure that their own safety is not compromised during the convulsive phase. They then ensure that where the victim's air supply is established it is maintained, and carry out a controlled buoyant lift. Lifting an unconscious body is taught by most recreational diver training agencies as an advanced skill, and for professional divers it is a basic skill, as it is one of the primary functions of the standby diver. Upon reaching the surface, emergency services are always contacted as there is a possibility of further complications requiring medical attention. If symptoms develop other than a seizure underwater the diver should immediately switch to a gas with a lower oxygen fraction or ascend to a shallower depth if decompression obligations allow. If a chamber is available at the surface, surface decompression is a recommended option. The U.S. Navy has published procedures for completing decompression stops where a recompression chamber is not immediately available. Some dive computers will recalculate decompression requirements for alternative mixtures provided the actual gas setting is activated.
The occurrence of symptoms of bronchopulmonary dysplasia or acute respiratory distress syndrome is treated by lowering the fraction of oxygen administered, along with a reduction in the periods of exposure and an increase in the break periods where normal air is supplied. Where supplemental oxygen is required for treatment of another disease (particularly in infants), a ventilator may be needed to ensure that the lung tissue remains inflated. Reductions in pressure and exposure will be made progressively, and medications such as bronchodilators and pulmonary surfactants may be used.
Divers manage the risk of pulmonary damage by limiting exposure to levels shown to be generally acceptable by experimental evidence, using a system of accumulated s which are based on exposure time at specified partial pressures. In the event of emergency treatment for decompression illness, it may be necessary to exceed normal exposure limits to manage more critical symptoms.
Retinopathy of prematurity may regress spontaneously, but should the disease progress beyond a threshold (defined as five contiguous or eight cumulative hours of stage 3 retinopathy of prematurity), both cryosurgery and laser surgery have been shown to reduce the risk of blindness as an outcome. Where the disease has progressed further, techniques such as Scleral buckle and vitrectomy surgery may assist in re-attaching the retina.
The Repex (repetitive exposure) method, developed in 1988, allows oxygen toxicity dosage to be calculated using a single dose value equivalent to 1 minute of 100% oxygen at atmospheric pressure called an Oxygen Tolerance Unit (OTU), and is used to avoid toxic effects over several days of operational exposure. Some dive computers will automatically track the dosage based on measured depth and selected gas mixture. The limits allow a greater exposure when the person has not been exposed recently, and daily allowable dose decreases with an increase in consecutive days with exposure. These values may not be fully supported by current data.
| + NOAA REPEX limits for whole-body exposure in multiple day oxygen exposures |
| 850 |
| 1400 |
| 1860 |
| 2100 |
| 2300 |
| 2520 |
| 2660 |
| 2800 |
| 2970 |
| 3100 |
| as calculated |
| + Oxygen toxicity units per minute at varying partial pressure |
| 0.00 |
| 0.15 |
| 0.27 |
| 0.37 |
| 0.47 |
| 0.56 |
| 0.65 |
| 0.74 |
| 0.83 |
| 0.92 |
| 1.00 |
| 1.08 |
| 1.16 |
| 1.24 |
| 1.32 |
| 1.40 |
| 1.48 |
| 1.55 |
| 1.63 |
| 1.70 |
| 1.78 |
| 1.85 |
| 1.92 |
| 2.00 |
| 2.07 |
| 2.14 |
| 2.21 |
| 2.28 |
| 2.35 |
| 2.42 |
| 2.49 |
A more recent proposal uses a simple power equation, Toxicity Index (TI) = t2 × PO2c, where t is time and c is the power term. This was derived from the chemical reactions producing reactive oxygen or nitrogen species, and has been shown to give good predictions for CNS toxicity with c = 6.8 and for pulmonary toxicity for c = 4.57.
For pulmonary toxicity, time is in hours, and PO2 in atmospheres absolute, TI should be limited to 250.
For CNS toxicity, time is in minutes, PO2 in atmospheres absolute, and a TI of 26,108 indicates a 1% risk.
The majority of infants who have survived following an incidence of bronchopulmonary dysplasia will eventually recover near-normal lung function, since lungs continue to grow during the first 5–7 years and the damage caused by bronchopulmonary dysplasia is to some extent reversible (even in adults). However, they are likely to be more susceptible to respiratory infections for the rest of their lives and the severity of later infections is often greater than that in their peers.
Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in infants frequently regresses without intervention and eyesight may be normal in later years. Where the disease has progressed to the stages requiring surgery, the outcomes are generally good for the treatment of stage 3 ROP, but are much worse for the later stages. Although surgery is usually successful in restoring the anatomy of the eye, damage to the nervous system by the progression of the disease leads to comparatively poorer results in restoring vision. The presence of other complicating diseases also reduces the likelihood of a favourable outcome.
Provision of supplementary oxygen remains of life-saving importance in critical care, and can increase survival in some chronic conditions, but hyperoxia and the formation of reactive oxygen species is involved in the pathogenesis of several life-threatening diseases. The toxic effects of hyperoxia are particularly prevalent in the pulmonary compartment, and cerebral and coronary circulations are at risk when vascular changes occur. Long-term hyperoxia harms the immune responses and susceptibility to infectious complications and tissue injury are increased.
The variability in tolerance and other variable factors such as workload have resulted in the U.S. Navy abandoning screening for oxygen tolerance. Of the 6,250 oxygen-tolerance tests performed between 1976 and 1997, only 6 episodes of oxygen toxicity were observed (0.1%).
Central nervous system oxygen toxicity among patients undergoing hyperbaric oxygen therapy is rare, and is influenced by a number of a factors: individual sensitivity and treatment protocol; and probably therapy indication and equipment used. A study by Welslau in 1996 reported 16 incidents out of a population of 107,264 patients (0.015%), while Hampson and Atik in 2003 found a rate of 0.03%. Yildiz, Ay and Qyrdedi, in a summary of 36,500 patient treatments between 1996 and 2003, reported only 3 oxygen toxicity incidents, giving a rate of 0.008%. A later review of over 80,000 patient treatments revealed an even lower rate: 0.0024%. The reduction in incidence may be partly due to use of a mask rather than a hood to deliver oxygen as there is less dead space in a mask.
The overall risk of CNS toxicity may be as high as 1 in 2000 to 3000 treatments. but it varies with the pressure and may be as high as 1 in 200 at higher pressure treatment schedules of 2.8 to 3.0 ATA, or as low as 1 in 10,000 for schedules at 2 ATA or less.
Bronchopulmonary dysplasia is among the most common complications of Premature birth infants and its incidence has grown as the survival of extremely premature infants has increased. Nevertheless, the severity has decreased as better management of supplemental oxygen has resulted in the disease now being related mainly to factors other than hyperoxia.
In 1997 a summary of studies of neonatal intensive care units in industrialised countries showed that up to 60% of low birth weight babies developed retinopathy of prematurity, which rose to 72% in extremely low birth weight babies, defined as less than at birth. However, severe outcomes are much less frequent: for very low birth weight babies—those less than at birth—the incidence of blindness was found to be no more than 8%.
Administration of supplemental oxygen is extensively and effectively used in emergency and intensive care medicine, but the reactive oxygen species caused by excessive oxygenation tend to cause a vicious cycle of tissue injury, characterized by cell damage, cell death, and inflammation, mostly in the lungs, which can exacerbate problems of tissue oxygenation for which the supplemental oxygen was intended as a treatment. Similar problems can occur in oxygen therapy for chronic conditions which involve hypoxia. Careful titration of oxygen supply to minimise the excess to physiological need also reduces pulmonary hyperoxic exposure to the reasonably practicable minimum. The incidence of pulmonary symptoms of oxygen toxicity is about 5%, and some drugs can increase the risk, such as the chemotherapeutic agent bleomycin.
Pulmonary oxygen toxicity was first described by J. Lorrain Smith in 1899 when he noted central nervous system toxicity and discovered in experiments in mice and birds that had no effect but of oxygen was a pulmonary irritant. Pulmonary toxicity may be referred to as the "Lorrain Smith effect". The first recorded human exposure was undertaken in 1910 by Bornstein when two men breathed oxygen at for 30 minutes, while he went on to 48 minutes with no symptoms. In 1912, Bornstein developed cramps in his hands and legs while breathing oxygen at for 51 minutes. Smith then went on to show that intermittent exposure to a breathing gas with less oxygen permitted the lungs to recover and delayed the onset of pulmonary toxicity.
Albert R. Behnke et al. in 1935 were the first to observe visual field contraction (tunnel vision) on dives between and . During World War II, Donald and Yarbrough et al. performed over 2,000 experiments on oxygen toxicity to support the initial use of closed circuit oxygen . Naval divers in the early years of oxygen rebreather diving developed a mythology about a monster called "Oxygen Pete", who lurked in the bottom of the Admiralty Experimental Diving Unit "wet pot" (a water-filled hyperbaric chamber) to catch unwary divers. They called having an oxygen toxicity attack "getting a Pete".
In the decade following World War II, Lambertsen et al. made further discoveries on the effects of breathing oxygen under pressure and methods of prevention. Their work on intermittent exposures for extension of oxygen tolerance and on a model for prediction of pulmonary oxygen toxicity based on pulmonary function are key documents in the development of standard operating procedures when breathing increased pressures of oxygen. Lambertsen's work showing the effect of carbon dioxide in decreasing time to onset of central nervous system symptoms has influenced work from current exposure guidelines to future Scuba set design.
Retinopathy of prematurity was not observed before World War II, but with the availability of supplemental oxygen in the decade following, it rapidly became one of the principal causes of infant blindness in developed countries. By 1960 the use of oxygen had become identified as a risk factor and its administration restricted. The resulting fall in retinopathy of prematurity was accompanied by a rise in infant mortality and hypoxia-related complications. Since then, more sophisticated monitoring and diagnosis have established protocols for oxygen use which aim to balance between hypoxic conditions and problems of retinopathy of prematurity.
Bronchopulmonary dysplasia was first described by Northway in 1967, who outlined the conditions that would lead to the diagnosis. This was later expanded by Bancalari and in 1988 by Shennan, who suggested the need for supplemental oxygen at 36 weeks could predict long-term outcomes. Nevertheless, Palta et al. in 1998 concluded that radiographic evidence was the most accurate predictor of long-term effects.
Bitterman et al. in 1986 and 1995 showed that Lighting and caffeine would delay the onset of changes to brain electrical activity in rats. In the years since, research on central nervous system toxicity has centred on methods of prevention and safe extension of tolerance. Sensitivity to central nervous system oxygen toxicity has been shown to be affected by factors such as circadian rhythm, drugs, age, and gender. In 1988, Hamilton et al. wrote procedures for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to establish oxygen exposure limits for habitat operations. Even today, models for the prediction of pulmonary oxygen toxicity do not explain all the results of exposure to high partial pressures of oxygen.
Since the late 1990s the recreational use of oxygen has been promoted by oxygen bars, where customers breathe oxygen through a nasal cannula. Claims have been made that this reduces stress, increases energy, and lessens the effects of hangovers and headaches, despite the lack of any scientific evidence to support them. There are also devices on sale that offer "oxygen massage" and "oxygen detoxification" with claims of removing body toxins and reducing body fat. The American Lung Association has stated "there is no evidence that oxygen at the low flow levels used in bars can be dangerous to a normal person's health", but the U.S. Center for Drug Evaluation and Research cautions that people with heart or lung disease need their supplementary oxygen carefully regulated and should not use oxygen bars.
Victorian society had a fascination for the rapidly expanding field of science. In "Dr. Ox's Experiment", a short story written by Jules Verne in 1872, the eponymous doctor uses electrolysis of water to separate oxygen and hydrogen. He then pumps the pure oxygen throughout the town of Quiquendone, causing the normally tranquil inhabitants and their animals to become aggressive and plants to grow rapidly. An explosion of the hydrogen and oxygen in Dr Ox's factory brings his experiment to an end. Verne summarised his story by explaining that the effects of oxygen described in the tale were his own invention (they are not in any way supported by empirical evidence). There is also a brief episode of oxygen intoxication in his "From the Earth to the Moon".
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