Medicinal air is used mainly for ventilation and inhalation therapy as well as a carrier gas for narcotic substances in inhalational anesthesia.
Pulmonary nebulizer machines or "nebulizers" are used to give routine medication treatments of inhaled bronchodilators to very young children who have problems using metered dose inhalers and spacers. Medicinal air is used to drive room air through tubing to the nebulizer. The nebulizer converts the liquid medication into a mist that can then be inhaled directly into the lungs.