Does Long-Term Oxygen Therapy Lower Healthcare Use for Patients with Chronic Lung Diseases?

Long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT) previously has been shown to lengthen survival in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and chronic severe resting hypoxemia. However, its effects on healthcare use in patients with COPD and other chronic lung disease remain uncertain. In this study, investigators used a Swedish database to identify 13,000 adults who were using LTOT for severe hypoxemia due to COPD, interstitial lung disease (ILD), or pulmonary hypertension (PH); healthcare use was compared for the year before and the year after initiating LTOT.

For patients with COPD, incidence of hospitalizations for exacerbations and all-cause hospitalizations dropped significantly after initiation of LTOT. Results were inconclusive for…