Can patients with COPD increase their chances of survival with portable oxygen concentrators? Definitely, as several medical studies reveal. The studies showed that COPD management with oxygen therapy had many benefits not limited to better resting hypoxemia (blood oxygen when at rest). Patients also observed better blood pressure, heart function, and indeed, the capacity to exercise longer and ability to do more strenuous activities.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD is a leading cause of disability and death in all countries. It is characterised by progressive breathlessness, loss of function and, in its later stages, chronic hypoxemia, which is an abnormally low level of oxygen in the blood, which could lead to organ failure and death. And now, technology has made it possible for COPD management to be as portable as a backpack.
One way to get supplemental oxygen is through an oxygen tank usually positioned beside hospital beds or your own bed at home. Most patients, though, although suffering the effects of COPD, are not yet so incapacitated to allow themselves to be attached to their bed so many hours a day.
New technology has made it possible for patients with COPD and other lung diseases or disorders to carry their oxygen around in shoulder bags or backpacks. These devices are called portable oxygen concentrators (POCs), and you can carry them anywhere, charge them up in your car, and even bring them on planes and cruises.
In most cases, supplemental oxygen is a chronic therapy — used over the long term. That means using the POC most hours and most days because, as what all the studies would indicate, that’s how you get the long term benefit.
Cases have been documented of people having stopped doing things they normally love to do because of their breathing disorder. These days, POCs can be carried almost anywhere, on a cruise, in an airplane, placed across the saddlebags of a horse, and off you go. And that is basically the biggest benefit of having COPD management with oxygen, and that is you can continue having the quality of life that you want, with the people you love.
