Inner Workings of the Hypoxic Drive and Intro to Disadvantages of Hypoxic Ventilation

The hypoxic ventilatory response is initiated and regulated by the peripheral chemoreceptors that are located in carotid bodies. Hypoxia is defined as the lack of oxygen in tissues of organisms, and in more depth, it is the reduction of oxygen supply to tissues below physiological levels despite adequate perfusion of tissue by blood.[1]  David J Pierson states that the mechanism of Hypoxic Ventilation has been adapted to maintain cellular activity at a minimum acceptable level. [2] This is important because this contributes to the reasoning as to why the Hypoxic Drive is not the primary respiratory drive in human beings.  Pierson states that the Hypoxic drive maintains only 10% of ventilation in average humans with no troubling medical conditions.

There are some disadvantages of the Hypoxic Drive that remain in the shadows at times though. In patients with COPD (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), the patients have a low saturation of oxygen at all times, thus their bodies have adapted to such an environment. However, with an increase in the oxygen saturation due to Hypoxic drive, the patients have an added stimulus which often does not help the patient and can be at times harmful.[3]  COPD patients. Long term Hypoxic ventilation however has shown to be effective in increasing the survival of such patients because of adaptation over a lengthy period of time.

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[1] KK Jain Textbook of Hyperbaric Medicine Chapter 5 (p.g. 38)

[2] David K Pierson (p.g. 44)

[3] Emerg Med J. 2006 February; 23(2): 144–146.