Experience of the last 10 years of the children's ambulatory oxygen therapy service (SOA) of the Chilean Ministry of Health.

In Chile, the SOA strategy was created in 2003, focusing on the paediatric population, who present stable respiratory pathologies, and who only require oxygen for hospital discharge. <bold>Aim:</bold> To describe the experience of the last 10 years of the Chilean Ministry of Health's SOA for children. <bold>Methods:</bold> Retrospective analysis of electronic records of patients admitted to the children's ambulatory oxygen therapy service of the Chilean Ministry of Health since 2022. Demographic characterization, diagnoses, type of equipment used and oxygen flow, time of indicated use, history of use of mechanical ventilation, nutritional status, among others, were performed. Descriptive statistics were used for the statistical analysis with Stata 11.2 software. <bold>Results:</bold> In the last 10 years 8741 patients have been admitted(59.5% male), mean age at admission 1.4 years (Des 4.4; range 0-19 years), bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) 57.5%, post-viral lung damage (PVD) 11.6%, cardiopulmonary malformations 5.8%, sequelae of aspiration pneumonia, central nervous system damage 5.92%, neuromuscular disease 2.3%, cystic fibrosis 1.17, ventilatory support 2.22%, others 13.5%. According to equipment used: cylinder 93.23%, concentrator 2.94% and O. Liquid 3.82%. Deceased patients 10.6% not associated with problems with the SOA. Discharges 67.15% and current treatment 21.52%. Indicated flow rate 0.1 lts/min 48.18%; 0.5 lts/min 15.05%, 0.25 lts/min 11.19%, other flow rates 25.58%. 84.16% permanent use and 15.84% only at night. <bold>Conclusions:</bold> The main diagnoses of admission are BPD and CPD. SOA has proven to be a safe public health strategy that significantly reduces healthcare costs.