One of the first papers to be presented on oxygen therapy was back in 1920 (2) when researchers investigated the effect of intravenous injection of Hydrogen Peroxide for the treatment of influenza pneumonia amongst Indian troops. An epidemic of influenza had occurred in Busrah in the summer of 1919; many patients contracted toxemia and broncho-pneumonia. Severe cases (i.e. those with toxemia and pneumonia) were segregated and the records revealed an over 80% mortality rate. Conventional treatments were seen as useless and so the researchers felt justified in setting up a trial using intravenous oxygen therapy.

The researchers theorised that the treatment could ‘supply oxygen to the tissues with greater rapidity than by ordinary methods, but also to render circulating toxins inert by oxidation.

In one patient, within six hours of the injection his fever was reduced, delirium vanished (prior to treatment the patient had to be tied to his bed due to delirium) and he was sitting up in bed and asking for food. Over the following ten days his temperature fell to normal and complete recovery resulted after a period of three weeks.

Encouraged by this success, the researchers used the same treatment on 24 other patients diagnosed with infleuzal pneumonia, selecting only those patients whose condition was considered terminal. Of the total of 25 patients, 13 recovered and 12 died. Of the thirteen who survived, ten were delirious at the time of treatment and had to be held down in bed, three had been comatose due to toxemia.

The report concludes that :

1. Hydrogen peroxide could be given intravenously without gas embolism being produced.
2. Toxemia seems to be overcome in many instances.
3. The treatment seems to reduce the mortality rate of influenza pneumonia to 48% which was considered to be a great improvement compared to a mortality rate of 80% in patient receiving other treatments and especially bearing in mind that the researchers only treated those patients who were the most severely afflicted and viewed as hopeless.

Oliver T.H. , Murphy D.V. Influenzal pneumonia: The intravenous injection of Hydrogen Peroxide. The Lancet Feb 21 1920 p432.

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