because it could compete with the drive to breath and cause a respiratory arrest
Because patients with long term COPD have "anesthetized" the portion of the brain that uses the CO2 level that triggers respiration. The body the begins to use the blood oxygen sensors in the carotid arteries to trigger respiration. If a patient is given enough O2 to bring the O2 blood levels to a more normal level, these oxygen sensors no longer work and the patient will stop breathing. Many years ago a COPD patient in my hospital turned a COPD patient's O2 from 2 lpm/nc to 7 lpm. The patients slowly went into respiratory arrest and we were unable to resuscitate him. COPD patients on a ventilator can have higher levels of O2 as the ventilator will provide continuous breathing; however weaning long term COPD patients off of the ventilator usually proves problematic and they usually are transferred to an LTAC as it often takes weeks to fully wean the patient off a continuous ventilator. Hope this helps.
John Fields MSN RN/CRRT
