Oxygen supply
Find the next step.
When your oxygen supply fails, one clear next step helps more than ten open questions. Choose your situation:
You do not have a prescription yet.
Discuss with your neurologist the prescription of 100 % medical oxygen from a cylinder, the flow rate it requires and a suitable mask. In parallel, check with your health insurer which documents it needs and which homecare provider is responsible for your federal state. The association cannot issue an individual prescription — that remains a medical task.
You do not know who supplies you.
First check whether your health insurer has authorised the oxygen supply and which homecare provider is responsible for you — this is usually stated on the authorisation, or your insurer can tell you. Our Austria-wide overview of providers and billing helps you place it: Oxygen supply in Austria: providers and billing (German only).
The mask or regulator does not fit.
What works is 100 % cylinder oxygen via a non-rebreather mask. The EAN guideline names a minimum of 12 l/min; in practice regulators up to 25 l/min are common, ideally up to 40 l/min — as flow reserve, not as a permanent setting. A demand valve is optional and often preferred: Optional and often preferred – it does not guarantee faster relief. More in our articles on choosing an oxygen mask (German only) and on the reservoir mask (German only).
Bottle exchange or resupply is failing.
Keep your prescription, provider, bottle size and bottle number at hand and request the exchange well before the bottle runs empty. If it gets stuck, the escalation path is: the provider first, then your health insurer, then the prescribing doctor. We cannot promise a response or delivery time — the association is not a 24-hour service.
Oxygen concentrators are unsuitable for aborting cluster attacks.
Concentrators do not deliver 100 % pure oxygen at the required flow rate of at least 12 l/min. Aborting an attack requires cylinder oxygen. Exceptions and details belong in a conversation with the treating neurologist.
This information page is available; the association's broader structured oxygen help is in development.
In-depth articles on the topic.
The choice of therapy and your individual settings remain with your treating clinician. For reading up:
This page does not replace medical advice
The content of this page serves general information and education. It does not replace a medical diagnosis or treatment. For acute complaints, please contact your doctor — in an emergency call 144.