Frequently Asked Questions

Never cook while you are using medical oxygen. If the stove is in use the person using oxygen should remain at least five feet away. Keep items containing oil and grease away when oxygen is in use, they are easily ignited.

No. The The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of U.S.A has directed that expiration dating stamps are not to be applied to pressure cylinders filled with medical oxygen, thus indicating that oxygen (O2) is safe,stable, and does not expire.

There are two main ways to measure oxygen levels in the blood – taking a sample of blood from your body with a needle (usually in the wrist or the earlobe), or using a pulse oximeter. You can use a Finger Pulse Oximeter to measure your blood oxygen at home.

1. A pulse oximeter: This device is placed on your finger or earlobe. It uses light to test the amount of oxygen in the blood.
2. A blood gas test: If you need a more exact reading, medical staff will usually take blood from an artery in your wrist.

Note the position of the indicator on the regulator dial. Just above or in the red area on the dial indicates the cylinder should be refilled. 500 psi (pounds per square inch) or greater indicates sufficient oxygen for at least one patient use.

.The standard portable cylinders are heavy and last only 2 (two) hours at 2 l/min.

The duration of this home oxygen therapy cylinder varies according to the flow rate setting. The duration varies from 2 hours 21 minutes (at 15 litres per minute) to 70 hours, 44 minutes (at 0.5 litres per minute).

It stays in the room in which it is placed, and patients use different lengths of oxygen tubing to move around. Maximum flow rate is normally 5 to 6 LPM. The standard adult nasal cannula can run as low as ½ liter per minute to as much as 6 liters per minute.

The air we breathe at standard atmospheric conditions contains 21% oxygen and 79% nitrogen (with some trace gases). However, compressed oxygen gas is 99.5% pure oxygen.

Your doctor will figure out how much extra oxygen you need after they check your usual levels, either with a blood test or through the skin using a device that clips to your finger, toe, or earlobe.

Normally patients on high flow oxygen receive up to 15 liters of oxygen a minute. But for those in critical condition, Dr. Stock and his colleagues were turning up the flow. “We were giving people oxygen at levels of 40 to 80 liters per minute.

Some patients only need 1 to 10 liters per minute of supplemental oxygen. But others we have to put on "high flow" oxygen system – 30 liters to 70 liters per minute. That's a lot. It can be very uncomfortable as air will be blown up your nose at a very rapid rate.

So if a patient is on 4 L/min O2 flow, then he or she is breathing air that is about 33 – 37% O2. The normal practice is to adjust O2 flow for patients to be comfortably above an oxygen blood saturation of 90% at rest. It is often, however, the case that patients need more oxygen for exercise.

Home oxygen therapy is extremely effective, but portable medical oxygen cylinder or tanks and oxygen concentrators add an increased risk for fire in the home. That's because fire needs oxygen to burn, and any material that catches fire will burn much more quickly due to the increased levels of pure oxygen.

Below 88% becomes dangerous, and when it dips to 84% or below, it's time to go to the hospital. Around 80% and lower is dangerous for your vital organs, so you should be treated right away.

A normal level of oxygen is usually 95% or higher. Some people with chronic lung disease or sleep apnea can have normal levels around 90%. The “SpO2” reading on a pulse oximeter shows the percentage of oxygen in someone's blood. If your home SpO2 reading is lower than 95%, call your health care provider.

Oxygen Cylinder “B” Type. A Container designed (clinical purpose) as a refillable cylinder used to hold compressed medical Oxygen (O2) under safe conditions at high pressure; O2 is used as an essential life support gas, for anesthesia, and for therapeutic purposes.

You should start oxygen therapy on any COVID-19 patient with an oxygen saturation below 90%, even if they show no physical signs of a low oxygen level.