The randomized SAVE-O2 AI trial, conducted in 300 patients in four U.S. hospitals, shows that an automated oxygen flow adjustment holds the therapeutic range much better than caregivers.
Oxygen is one of the most prescribed therapies in hospitals, and yet its flow rate is still regulated by hand, by successive adjustments, as the caregivers visit. The randomized SAVE-O2 AI trial, coordinated by the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine, measured what an automatic regulation changes.
Three hundred hospitalized adults—acute respiratory failure, trauma, burns, postoperative care—were divided between standard management and autonomous titration entrusted to a device, the O2matic PRO100, which continuously monitors saturation and corrects flow in real time. Patients in the automated arm spent 85% of the time within the targeted oxygenation range, compared to 63% in the control arm, with reduced exposure to both low and too high values.
The trial was conducted at four sites — UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Oregon Health & Science University, and Wake Forest School of Medicine — and published in JAMA Internal Medicine. The first author is anesthesiologist David Douin, the principal investigator is emergency physician Adit Ginde. Beyond accuracy, the authors highlight an organizational effect: fewer manual adjustments, and therefore time given back to nurses and respiratory physiotherapists.
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