Long-Term Oxygen Therapy and Risk of Fire-Related Events

INTRODUCTION: Two large major trials showed that long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT) improved mortality in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and hypoxemia. Although oxygen accelerates combustion and is an obvious fire hazard, LTOT has traditionally been prescribed to veterans who are actively smoking. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective chart review of all veterans with COPD at a single center who were prescribed new LTOT between October 2010 and September 2015. Of the 158 patients who met the study criteria, 152 were male. Bayesian logistic regression was used to model the outcome variable fire-related incident with the predictors smoking status, age, race, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and type of oxygen used. RESULTS: The mean age of the 158 patients with COPD in the study was 71.3 years in nonsmokers and 65.9 years in smokers. The model-estimated odds (SD) of a fire-related incident occurring in a smoker were 31.6 (5.1–372.7) times the odds of a fire-related incident occurring in a nonsmoker. CONCLUSIONS: Patients who smoke and remain on LTOT put themselves at greater risk of having a fire-related incident than do nonsmokers.