SUPPLEMENTARY OXYGEN AND WOUND HEALING IN VASCULAR SURGERY: TOO SIMPLE TO BE TRUE?

The article discusses issues concerning efficacy of supplementary oxygen in the postoperative phase. The role of supplementary oxygen and the risk of surgical site infection (SSI) has been a considerable controversy, it has conflicting results from the published controlled trials. Grief and his colleagues has found out that providing 80% oxygen throughout surgery and for 2 h postoperatively decreased infection risk by half compared with patients who were given 30% oxygen.