A NEW APPARATUS FOR THE ADMINISTRATION OF 95 PER CENT OXYGEN

The use of 95 per cent oxygen for the removal of nitrogen from tissue spaces and from certain cavities and viscera was advocated by Fine and his associates 1 in 1936. These investigators showed that replacement of nitrogen in the alveolar air by oxygen was followed by the reduction in the nitrogen tension in the circulating blood and the passage into the blood of a large proportion of any nitrogen trapped in the distended small intestine or in tissue spaces. During the past seven years this principle has been employed at the Rhode Island Hospital in the more severe cases of paralytic ileus as well as in a few cases of subcutaneous emphysema. The method has also been used to reduce the headache following aeroencephalography. A short report of our earlier results was published with Dr. Palmer Congdon. 2 In this work the apparatus for administering 95 per cent oxygen