Oxygen. . . Can that drug by itself save lives?

[becksdad]

Sled, I don't quite understand part of your last post. Even if you died right now, there's still oxygen in the blood. The other drugs mentioned don't depend on the presence of O2, but rather the action of circulation. Maybe its just being picky with semantics, but in cardiac arrest, we supply not only the oxygen, but the circulation, too.

Anyway, no big deal. The original question about does O2 by itself save lives? I don't know.... but I think in certain circumstances (like whenever severe hypoxia exists), it is certainly a required first step for improvement in order to survive long enough for complete definitive treatment. So I think at the least it is often a neccessary piece of the puzzle.

[AnthonyM83]

But is there conclusive proof that it works?

I honestly don't know...I'm not really part of this debate. I was just pointing out a flaw in the logic of one of his statements...cause I'm helpful like that

[Thunderchild145]

My opinion is that I haven't seen anybody harmed by administarion of supplemental O2, but I've seen plenty of people helped by it. If we want to talk logically, you can make an inductive arguement that says it's probable that most people in the future will not be harmed by supplemental oxygen, and some will actually be helped by it. Paramedics are perfusion specialists. Perfusion is all about getting oxygen rich blood to the cells and removing blood laden with wastes from the cells. More oxygen in my mind means better perfusion (assuming uncompromised circulation/artificial circulation).

[BushyFromOz]

Essentially, this discussion has evolved into one where the pros and cons of both evidence based and clinical based medicine are being juxtapositioned with one another, and has really pointed out just how much professions struggle to implement the philosophy that is EBM on a large scale.

Its like eating ice cream, you just want to devour and digest it, but if you bite to much, it gives you a headache :?

Fascinating! continue all, i will watch on............ 8)