Oxygen Therapy in Pulmonary Vascular Disease: A Systematic Review, Meta-Analysis, and Comment

Abstract

Main pulmonary vascular diseases (PVD) with precapillary pulmonary hypertension (PH) are pulmonary arterial and chronic thromboembolic PH. Guidelines recommend supplemental oxygen therapy (SOT) for severely hypoxemic patients with PH, but evidence is scarce. The authors performed a systematic review and where possible meta-analyses on the effects of SOT on hemodynamics and exercise performance in patients with PVD. In PVD, short-term SOT significantly improved mean pulmonary artery pressure and exercise performance. There is growing evidence on the benefit of long-term SOT for selected patients with PVD regarding exercise capacity and maybe even survival.

Keywords: Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension; Hyperoxia; Long-term oxygen therapy; Oxygen; Oxygen therapy; Pulmonary arterial hypertension; Pulmonary hypertension; Pulmonary vascular disease.

Fig. 1

Direct and indirect impact of COVID-19 on heart failure.

Fig. 2

Preexisting HF is an independent risk factor for intensive care unit stay, intubation, and in-hospital mortality after adjusted for confounding factors in patients with COVID-19 infection.