Oximeter Studies on Patients with Chronic Obstructive Emphysema, Awake and during Sleep

Abstract

PATIENTS hospitalized with advanced obstructive emphysema are often nervous, anxious and tense, perhaps to a greater degree than the average hospital patient. Because of dyspnea and cough they tend to sleep poorly and often request sedatives for use at night. Sedatives should not be administered, for respiratory-center depression will reduce ventilatory effort and further decrease gas exchange.Alterations in ventilation occur during sleep in normal persons. If patients with advanced obstructive emphysema associated with hypoxia have a further fall in arterial oxygen saturation during sleep, sedatives are contraindicated, and oxygen therapy at night might become an important adjunct to treatment. . . .