Portable Oxygen Concentrators - A STRAIGHTFORWARD Guide
Portable oxygen machines and specially portable oxygen concentrators have changed the way many people, who must have continuous or semi continuous oxygen therapy, are actually living.
It used to be that mobility for COPD patients was severely restricted. https://inogen197.bloggersdelight.dk/2024/02/14/portable-oxygen-concentrators-comparisons/ meant being house bound or overly dependent on a hospital or clinic.
With the advent of a lot more practical and better quality portable machines, patients mobility has increased dramatically and you could now find people on supplemental oxygen doing a lot of things they wouldn't have imagined just a couple years ago.
This has happened due to new portable tanks, due to more advanced conserving devices (that regulate the delivery rates) and, possibly the most important reason of all - the introduction of portable oxygen concentrators.
An oxygen concentrator is a machine that extracts oxygen from the encompassing air, it concentrates it and delivers it - right to the patient (in a home concentrator machine it can also be used to refill an oxygen cylinder). At sea level and if air pollution isn't an issue, ambient air is composed of approximately 21% oxygen, 88% nitrogen and a smaller amount of various gases. The oxygen concentrator extracts oxygen, concentrates it and delivers it to the patient.
Things You Need To Know:
You need a power source to operate, that may be both with rechargeable batteries and a plug in option (including for vehicle).
There exists a continuous rumble from the concentrators motor.
It is possible to adjust the flow level according to your prescription.
There are different models with different weights the give enable your mobility.
Always check your battery durability so when a safety precaution you should have an extra and charged battery.
Portable oxygen concentrators arrived on the scene around 2002 and since that time have had an excellent impact in the portable oxygen delivery area.
The major difference between an oxygen concentrator and an oxygen cylinder or tank, is that the concentrator is not a storage device but a supplier of oxygen. Which means that so long as the energy source is uninterrupted, oxygen will continue to be delivered so long as needed. In a tank there will be the limitation in line with the amount of oxygen that's stored, whether liquid or gas.
The brand new designs have both a direct plug in option (so you can plug them in cars, for instance) in addition to being battery operated. They're smaller, lighter and therefore easier to carry and have a primary and positive effect on peoples mobility.
It seems as if each new model is smaller and has more durable rechargeable batteries.
A significant benefit is they have increased the possibility of travel for patients on extra oxygen, and actually one of the more important aspects of that is that by May, 2009, the FAA authorized the usage of some portable oxygen concentrators up to speed airlines that cross US airspace (this implies all arriving and departing flights). This change is of great consequence as flights was a problem. It is still, however, smart to check with your airline before a flight.
Although living and having to depend on supplemental oxygen isn't something anyone would willingly elect to do, POC's (portable oxygen concentrators) have really changed people's lives. The much greater selection of activities that can now be practiced, as well as increased mobility in general, have had an extremely positive impact on longterm oxygen therapy patients.