Hyperoxemia: The Poison Is in the Dose

The Poison Is in the DoseTo the Editor:The counterintuitive question of the link between hyperoxemia and increased mortality has frequently been raised in the last 10 years.The Austin and colleagues' randomized controlled trial in 2010 was the first study to demonstrate an excess of mortality with a short exposure to liberal use of oxygen in patients with acute respiratory failure (1).The results of the recently published meta-analysis by Chu and colleagues, which included 16,037 patients from 25 randomized controlled studies, were compelling.