Domiciliary oxygen therapy has been used during the last five decades to alleviate hypoxemia and its consequences. It is considered to be one of the most expensive therapeutic methods currently available, but it is also the only therapeutic approach that can prolong survival in patients with chronic hypoxemia. Domiciliary oxygen therapy is also aimed at relieving dyspnea and improving exercise capacity and sleep quality. Portable cylinders, concentrators and portable liquid systems are the main delivery systems currently available and oxygen-conserving devices attached are aimed at improving their effectiveness. In order to minimize the associated costs, appropriate patient selection and reassessment are required. Domiciliary oxygen therapy is mostly prescribed in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease - a disease caused predominantly by smoking and in which airway obstruction results in reduced arterial oxygenation (hypoxemia). Domiciliary oxygen therapy effectiveness is best evaluated and documented in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which also accounts for most of its prescriptions. Therefore, this review focuses predominantly on this disease-related oxygen therapy.
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