Life cannot be separated from oxygen, and “medical oxygen” is a very special category of oxygen, playing an important role in life support, critical care, rehabilitation and physiotherapy. So, what are the current sources and classifications of medical oxygen ? What is the development prospect of medical oxygen ?
What is medical oxygen ?
Medical oxygen is the most widely used medical gas in hospitals. It is mainly used clinically for the treatment of shock caused by drowning, nitrite, cocaine, carbon monoxide and respiratory muscle paralysis. It is also used for the prevention and treatment of pneumonia, myocarditis and heart dysfunction. On the other hand, due to the large-scale spread of COVID-19, the importance of medical oxygen in treatment has gradually become prominent, directly affecting the cure rate and survival status of patients.
Medical oxygen was not initially strictly distinguished from industrial oxygen, and both were obtained by separating air. Before 1988, hospitals at all levels in my country used industrial oxygen. It was not until 1988 that the “Medical Oxygen” standard was introduced and made mandatory, abolishing the clinical use of industrial oxygen. Compared with industrial oxygen, the standards for medical oxygen are more stringent. Medical oxygen needs to filter out other gas impurities(such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, ozone and acid-base compounds) to prevent poisoning and other hazards during use. In addition to purity requirements, medical oxygen has higher requirements on the volume and cleanliness of storage bottles, making it more suitable for use in hospitals.
Medical oxygen classification and market size
From the source, it includes cylinder oxygen prepared by oxygen plants and oxygen obtained by oxygen concentrators in hospitals; In terms of oxygen state, there are two categories: liquid oxygen and gaseous oxygen; It is also worth noting that in addition to 99.5% high-purity oxygen, there is also a type of oxygen-enriched air with an oxygen content of 93%. In 2013, the State Food and Drug Administration issued the national drug standard for oxygen-enriched air(93% oxygen), using “oxygen-enriched air” as the generic name for the drug, strengthening management and supervision, and it is currently widely used in hospitals.
The production of oxygen by hospitals through oxygen production equipment has relatively higher requirement on hospital scale and equipment technology, and the advantages are also more obvious. In 2016, the Meical Gases and Engineering Branch of the China Industrial Gases Association, in collaboration with the Standards Division of the Medical Management Center of National Health and Family Planning Commission, surveyed 200 hospitals across the country. The results showed that 49% of hospitals used liquid oxygen, 27% used molecular sieve oxygen generators, and some hospitals with low oxygen consumption used oxygen cylinders to supply oxygen. However, in recent years, the disadvantages of using liquid oxygen and bottled oxygen have become increasingly prominent. 85% of newly built hospitals prefer to choose modern molecular sieve oxygen production equipment, and most old hospitals choose to use oxygen machines instead of traditional bottled oxygen.
Hospital oxygen equipment and quality control
Traditional cylinder oxygen and liquid oxygen in hospitals are produced by cryogenic air separation. Gaseous cylinder oxygen can be used directly, while liquid oxygen needs to be stored replaced, decompressed, and vaporized before it can be put into clinical use.
There are many problems in the use of oxygen cylinders, including difficulty in storage and transportation, inconvenience in use, etc. The biggest problem is safety. Steel cylinders are high-pressure containers that are prone to serious accidents. Due to major safety hazards, the use of cylinders needs to be phased out in large hospitals and hospitals with large flow of patients. In addition to the problems with the cylinders themselves, many companies without medical oxygen qualifications produce and sell cylinder oxygen, which contains inferior products and too many impurities. There are even cases where industrial oxygen is disguised as medical oxygen, and hospitals find it difficult to distinguish the quality when purchasing, which may lead to very serious medical accidents.
With the advancement of technology, many hospitals have begun to choose oxygen concentrator. The main oxygen production methods currently used are molecular sieve oxygen production systems and membrane separation oxygen production systems, which are widely used in hospitals.
The main thing to mention here is the molecular sieve oxygen concentrator. It uses pressure swing adsorption technology to directly enrich oxygen from the air. It is safe and convenient to use. Its convenience was especially fully demonstrated during the qpidemic, helping medical staff to free their hands. The autonomous oxygen production and supply completely eliminated the time of carrying oxygen cylinders, and increased hospitals’ willingness to purchase molecular sieve oxygen generators.
Currently, most of the oxygen produced is oxygen-enriched air(93% oxygen), which can meet the oxygen needs of general wards or small medical institutions that do not perform critical surgery, but cannot meet the oxygen needs of large-scale, ICUs, and oxygen chambers.
Application and prospect of Medical Oxygen
The epidemic has increasingly highlighted the importance of meical oxygen in clinical practice, but the shortage of medical oxygen supply has also beed found in some countries.
At the same time, large and medium-sized hospitals are gradually phasing out cylinders to improve safety, so the upgrading and transformation of oxygen production enterprises is also imperative. With the popularization of oxygen production technology, hospital oxygen gengerators are more widely used. How to further improve intelligence, reduce costs, and make them more integrated and portable while ensuring the quality of oxygen production has also become a development direction for oxygen generators.
Meical oxygen plays a very important auxiliary role in the treatment of various diseases, and how to improve quality control and optimize the supply system has become a problem that companies and hospitals need to face together. With the entry of medical device companies, new solutions have beed brought about for oxygen preparation in multiple scenarious such as hospitals, homes and plateaus. The times are propressing, technology is developing, and we look forward to what kind of progress will be made in the future.
Post time: Jun-23-2025