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Oxygen Therapy & Concentrator Resources
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Help for COPD Oxygen Therapy and Concentrator Technology
Oxygen therapy raises the level of oxygen in the blood. For
some, blood oxygen levels only drop during exercise or during sleep.
For others, oxygen levels are consistently low and require
concentrated oxygen 24 hours per day. Regardless of your
condition, the quickest way to feel better is to get in touch with
other people with similar needs and educate yourself.
Oxygen concentrators and generators are used mainly as a breathing
supplement for
oxygen therapy. They are also used for
hyperbaric chambers and oxygen bars, but this resource is concerned
with prescription medical grade breathing oxygen produced by HME
type oxygen concentrators for people recovering from acute lung
disorders or suffering from chronic lung disorders.
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Oxygen Therapy Information |
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American Lung Association: Oxygen Therapy Fact Sheet
The American Lung Association is dedicated to prevention of lung
disease and promotion of lung health. This page gives general
information oxygen therapy, what oxygen does in the body, ways of
dispensing oxygen, benefits of supplemental oxygen, and a factual
statement about recreational oxygen bars.
Merck Online Medical Library: Rehabilitation for Lung and Airway Disorders
This medical resource for patients and caregivers features a page on
oxygen therapy. Here you can find basic information on the
applications of oxygen therapy, its benefits, oximetry, home oxygen,
and safety.
Portable Oxygen: A User's Perspective
A helpful website created by Pete Wilson, who has been on oxygen
therapy since 1996. His website is made to educate oxygen
therapy users and touches on subjects of oxygen providers, oxygen
conservers, compressed oxygen, liquid oxygen, travel, and safety. |
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Patient Support Groups |
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COPD Support, Inc
A support group for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, which can
include Emphysema, Chronic Bronchitis, Chronic Asthma and others.
This is an open forum that allows people to learn from each other
and provide support. Find ideas and solutions dealing with COPD.
COPD Alert
This support and advocacy group is a huge resource for anyone who
needs oxygen therapy. Not only is there tons of COPD /
Chronic Bronchitis
information, there are also links to useful tools, current events,
new procedures, books, medical library resources, articles and
endless other help.
Emphysema Foundation For Our
Right to Survive
A huge organization that supports people with Emphysema or COPD.
You can join email discussions with patients and doctors, find
treatment information, browse medical pages, read explanations or
interact with advocacy and awareness projects. |
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Oxygen Concentrator Technology |
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Wikipedia: Oxygen Concentrator
Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia. On this page, find
out exactly how an oxygen concentrator works, its advantages over
oxygen tanks, and other basic information.
Physics Central: How Things Work, The Physics of Everyday Life
This is a website where people can submit a question to Dr. Lou.
On this page he answers a question how does an oxygen
concentrator work? Understand their
inner workings and how they produce oxygen from the ambient air.
Fiji School of Medicine: Department of Anaesthesia
An article by Dr. Roger Eltringham from 1992 discusses the oxygen
concentrator when it was newly developed for anesthesia and only
available to hospitals. This is the basis of all modern oxygen
concentrators.
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How do oxygen
concentrators work?
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Room air is
drawn into the machine through a series of filters, compressed to a
pressure of 4 atmospheres, or 20 psi, and passed into a column
containing zeolite, a "molecular strainer" of aluminium silicate.
Nitrogen attaches to the zeolite, while oxygen passes through. Before
the column becomes saturated with nitrogen, the flow of air is
switched to a second column; the first column is vented to
atmosphere, discharging most of the nitrogen, and the rest of
the nitrogen is removed by back flushing the column with a small
flow of oxygen from the second column. As the second column
approaches saturation the process is reversed. The life of the zeolite crystals can be expected to be at least 20,000 hours which
in most situations would give about 10 years' use. The gas exiting
from the columns ( 95% oxygen) passes through a small reservoir
chamber, and a flow control system, to the patient. Most domestic
sized machines can produce a flow of up to 4 liters/minute of
oxygen. Higher flows result in a loss of concentration, and most
machines are flow-limited to prevent this from occurring.
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3 Liter Oxygen Concentrator |
5 Liter Oxygen Concentrator |
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Oxygen Concentrator Literature |
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Here you can view and download various
brochures, manuals, flyers and
charts. Click on the name once to open it. Then, look to
the top left for an icon that looks like a disk. Hold the
mouse over it and it should read "Save a copy of this file".
Click there and choose where you want to save the file.
All these files are Adobe Acrobat format and require Adobe
Reader. Most computers already have Adobe Reader on them.
If yours does not, click this icon to get Adobe Reader.
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Brochures |
Flyers |
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Oxygen
Concentrator Manuals |
Oxygen
Tank Supply Time Charts |
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If you have
any questions, call us, we'll be glad to help!
1-800-551-8544
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