Effect of Oxygen During Percutaneous Coronary Intervention for Pain Relief

Nasal oxygen is widely used as pain relief against ischemic pain during Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI). However, to our knowledge no randomised clinical trials have tested this. In contrast, oxygen causes coronary artery vasoconstriction in man. Furthermore, a recent Cochrane meta-analysis has shown no evidence of beneficial effect of oxygen for patients with acute myocardial infarction (with normal blood saturation. The investigators therefore wanted to examine if oxygen reduces ischemic pain during PCI for stable angina or NSTEMI.