Oxygen and the aerobic metabolism is the fundamental basis for all human life. Everything from the intra-uterine growth of the fetus to the very end of life requires an adequate oxygenation of the transport media, the blood, and from that all cells within the body rely on receiving an adequate supply of oxygen. In the atmosphere around the earth, the volume of oxygen is a fixed 21 vol.% of oxygen is present. The medical world has known for a long while that it is not only an adequate oxygen fraction that is necessary but also an adequate partial oxygen pressure to ensure the proper transport from the lung into the blood.
Medicinal oxygen is also a fundamental part of the fresh gas flow during general anesthesia and in combinations with either nitrous oxide or air in proportions of 1:2 l/min. It is used in operating theatres throughout the world.
Medicinal oxygen is the standard of care for certain Cointoxications. Normo-baric high flow oxygen therapy or in severe cases hyperbaric oxygen therapy is today the gold standard of care for carbon monoxide poisoning.