Do you recommend providing supplemental oxygen for patients with a pneumothorax in the absence of hypoxemia?
Answer from: at Academic Institution
I was certainly always taught that one should give supplemental oxygen to patients to decrease the size of the pneumothorax. This is based on the "nitrogen wash-out" theory, essentially, you're trying to get the partial pressure of nitrogen down in the alveoli so that it will be resorbed from the pn...