Hello doctor, My father-in-law, 86 years old, has been on O2 for some time, but recently had a third bout with pneumonia. With each event he comes home sustained and comfortable on about 4 LPM, but six months prior to his most recent bout we changed the location and he has come down from 4 LPM O2 to 2 LPM, and often takes it off for half an hour at a time to eat, shower, etc., without discomfort. But after this most recent bout, the pulmonologist is saying he could not tolerate relocation back to native place. As I understand it, I think the difference in partial pressure of O2 at the alveoli would be less than 1 %. Why would that be significant?
Hello. Your relative is now in long-term oxygen therapy, the reason for that may be an acute exacerbation of COPD with pneumonia. He had around three bouts in six months indicates most probably type D COPD and he may require long term controlled oxygen therapy to further not to deteriorate. Oxyhemoglobin curve is sigmoid in shape and his partial O2 may fall in steep part. The steep portion of the oxyhemoglobin dissociation curve is the range that exists at the systemic capillaries (a small drop in systemic capillary p(O2) can result in the release of large amounts of oxygen for the metabolically active cells and this may result in respiratory failure. So this might be the reason why your relative was advised not to shift to a high altitude.