ArticleEuropean clinical respiratory journal2015
Outcomes of acute exacerbations in COPD in relation to pre-hospital oxygen therapy.
Article in European clinical respiratory journal, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Adult Patients with Respiratory Distress: Current Evidence-based Recommendations for Prehospital Care.The western journal of emergency medicine · 2020Guideline
- Cost-effectiveness of FreeOBMJ open · 2018Trial
- Chronic Hypercapnic Respiratory Failure in COPD in Lithuania: National Registry Trends and Prehospital Emergency-Care Professionals' Knowledge of Hypercapnia and Oxygen Therapy.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Prehospital treatment modalities for acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a scoping review.BMC emergency medicine · 2026Article
- Final diagnoses and mortality rates in ambulance patients administered nebulized β2-agonists bronchodilators.Internal and emergency medicine · 2025Observational
- Article
- Global mortality and readmission rates following COPD exacerbation-related hospitalisation: a meta-analysis of 65 945 individual patients.ERJ open research · 2024Article
- Hypoxemia and not hyperoxemia predicts worse outcome in severe COPD exacerbations - an observational study.European clinical respiratory journal · 2023Article
- 2021 Guideline for the Management of COPD Exacerbations: Emergency Medicine Association of Turkey (EMAT) / Turkish Thoracic Society (TTS) Clinical Practice Guideline Task Force.Turkish journal of emergency medicineArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPre-hospital, high-concentration oxygen therapy during acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) has been associated with increased mortality. Recent COPD guidelines have encouraged titrated oxygen therapy with a target saturation range of 88-92%. Oxygen therapy leading to saturation above 92% is defined as 'inappropriate oxygen therapy'.
objectivesTo examine the frequency of inappropriate oxygen therapy and whether inappropriate oxygen therapy in the ambulance in an urban area with short transit time to hospital was associated with poor outcome.
methodsIn an audit of 405 consecutive patients with AECOPD arriving by ambulance to Hvidovre Hospital, details of transit time, oxygen administration, saturation, and arterial blood gases were registered. Outcomes were respiratory acidosis, need of supported ventilation, length of hospitalisation, and in-hospital mortality.
resultsOnly 15 patients were not treated with oxygen and information on oxygen flow was missing in seven patients and on saturation on one patient. Altogether, 352 (88.7%) of 397 patients received inappropriate oxygen therapy. Patients on 'inappropriate oxygen therapy' (saturation ≥92%) had a high frequency of respiratory acidosis at hospital admission, 108 (33.5%) of 324 patients, length of stay was on average 5.1 days, 12.5% of the patients needed ventilatory support, and in-hospital mortality was 3.4%.
conclusionThe majority of patients with AECOPD received inappropriate oxygen therapy in the ambulance, but their need of ventilatory support, length of stay, and mortality were low. Randomised studies are needed to clarify the optimal pre-hospital oxygen therapy.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.