{"title":"Partial pressure of oxygen, hyperoxemia and hyperoxia in the intensive care or anesthesia setting.","authors":"Sylvain Diop, Roman Mounier","doi":"10.4103/mgr.MEDGASRES-D-25-00028","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In clinical studies, the partial pressure of oxygen (PaO2) and oxygen pulse saturation are the main variables used to assess blood oxygenation and define the threshold of hypoxia/hyperoxia and hypoxemia/hyperoxemia. Determination of the optimal oxygenation target has generated a lot of interest in recent years, mainly because of the potential risk of worse outcomes associated with hyperoxia, whereas the risk associated with hypoxia has been already well known. In this short narrative review, we recall some fundamental elements of physiology regarding the meaning of PaO2, the diffusion of oxygen to cells, the definitions of hyperoxemia and hyperoxia and the mechanisms of oxygen toxicity to provide a better understanding of these concepts, to which intensive care clinicians are frequently confronted. PaO2 provides only limited information about oxygen concentration carried by blood and does not allow to determine whether cells are exposed to hyperoxia. This should be considered for the design of future studies that aim to determine optimal oxygenation target and by clinicians for their daily practice.</p>","PeriodicalId":18559,"journal":{"name":"Medical Gas Research","volume":"16 1","pages":"53-58"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9000,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Medical Gas Research","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.4103/mgr.MEDGASRES-D-25-00028","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/6/28 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"MEDICINE, RESEARCH & EXPERIMENTAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In clinical studies, the partial pressure of oxygen (PaO2) and oxygen pulse saturation are the main variables used to assess blood oxygenation and define the threshold of hypoxia/hyperoxia and hypoxemia/hyperoxemia. Determination of the optimal oxygenation target has generated a lot of interest in recent years, mainly because of the potential risk of worse outcomes associated with hyperoxia, whereas the risk associated with hypoxia has been already well known. In this short narrative review, we recall some fundamental elements of physiology regarding the meaning of PaO2, the diffusion of oxygen to cells, the definitions of hyperoxemia and hyperoxia and the mechanisms of oxygen toxicity to provide a better understanding of these concepts, to which intensive care clinicians are frequently confronted. PaO2 provides only limited information about oxygen concentration carried by blood and does not allow to determine whether cells are exposed to hyperoxia. This should be considered for the design of future studies that aim to determine optimal oxygenation target and by clinicians for their daily practice.
期刊介绍:
Medical Gas Research is an open access journal which publishes basic, translational, and clinical research focusing on the neurobiology as well as multidisciplinary aspects of medical gas research and their applications to related disorders. The journal covers all areas of medical gas research, but also has several special sections. Authors can submit directly to these sections, whose peer-review process is overseen by our distinguished Section Editors: Inert gases - Edited by Xuejun Sun and Mark Coburn, Gasotransmitters - Edited by Atsunori Nakao and John Calvert, Oxygen and diving medicine - Edited by Daniel Rossignol and Ke Jian Liu, Anesthetic gases - Edited by Richard Applegate and Zhongcong Xie, Medical gas in other fields of biology - Edited by John Zhang. Medical gas is a large family including oxygen, hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, xenon, hydrogen sulfide, nitrous oxide, carbon disulfide, argon, helium and other noble gases. These medical gases are used in multiple fields of clinical practice and basic science research including anesthesiology, hyperbaric oxygen medicine, diving medicine, internal medicine, emergency medicine, surgery, and many basic sciences disciplines such as physiology, pharmacology, biochemistry, microbiology and neurosciences. Due to the unique nature of medical gas practice, Medical Gas Research will serve as an information platform for educational and technological advances in the field of medical gas.