Oxygen therapy for dyspnoea in adults

Abstract

This review aimed to determine if oxygen therapy relieves breathlessness in end-stage illness in adults. No overall improvement of breathlessness in cancer study participants was found when oxygen breathing was compared to air breathing. However, some cancer study participants appeared to feel better breathing oxygen. Oxygen breathing slightly reduced breathlessness in two of three studies of heart failure participants after six minutes of exercise but the effect at peak exercise was uncertain. One small study found that breathing oxygen reduced breathlessness on exercise for study participants with severe curvature of the spine. The review was limited by the small number of studies, the small number of study participants and by the methods used in the studies.