Lip care for patient on oxygen

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I know we aren't supposed to use petroleum based products for a patient who is on oxygen. In the hospital, our respiratory therapists recommended surgi-lube. At our hospice, we use a lot of vitamin E. Is vitamin E okay to use with oxygen? Is there anything else, besides the surgi-lube that you all use?

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I'd suggest KY. It's been used before with great response..and it's alot less expensive then the items you mentioned.

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Specializes in Med/Surg/Tele, Neuro, IMU.

Mouth care is a pet peeve of mine as a nurse. I would use anything available including Vitamin E, surgi-lube (which is the same as KY), some of the oral swab kits come with a tube of lip goo that sometimes looks like lotion. If you are working with patients that have family involvement, you can come up with a list of items that the patient may need during their care. This list can include things like: lip balm (Chapstick, etc), lotion, eye drops, powder, etc. This not only gets the patient what they need, it also allows the family to contribute at a time they often feel powerless. This is true for those in the hospital and those on hospice.

Good luck to you!

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I always like the idea of including families. It bothers me when we have a patient in the inpatient unit and a family wants to help with their care and we take over. Thanks for the ideas! So, if a patient is on oxygen, surgilube/KY or the lotiony water based "lip goo" is the way to go.

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Specializes in Med/Surg/Tele, Neuro, IMU.

Correct. Water-based is the way to go.

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Specializes in LTC.

Burt's Bees chapstick is non-petroleum based.

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Olive oil!

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Specializes in Oncology, Palliative care.

I second the olive oil, that is what we use. I also love Burt's Bees - fabulous products! ;)

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Specializes in PICU, NICU, L&D, Public Health, Hospice.

I also occasionally will ask the family to put a bit of the olive oil in the water they dip the toothettes in. Particularly when the patient is actively dying the OO can really help to keep the buccal tissues from getting too dry.

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I also occasionally will ask the family to put a bit of the olive oil in the water they dip the toothettes in. Particularly when the patient is actively dying the OO can really help to keep the buccal tissues from getting too dry.

I like this idea and am going to steal it. I steal a lot of ideas from this forum! :)

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They started a crackdown at my work for continuous O2 users and any petroleum based products..chapstick, butt cream ect.

Our solution was to refer the family member to online sites for petroleum free products, such as "Alba Un-petroleum lip balm" at:

http://www.vitacost.com/productResults.aspx?N=32+1003194+4293081393&Ne=73&Ns=P_SoldQuantity|1

or RoEzIt which is a natural skin cream that was designed with people who use oxygen in mind. This one we have used. It is on the thin side but seems to hydrate decently. It has vitamin E in it.

They can be on the pricy side but those few bucks are probably well worth it to the patient!

I will have to look into Burt's Bees, Thanks!

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Specializes in Hospice / Ambulatory Clinic.

I usually keep a new lipbalm or two in my gear bag. I get them for free at Walgreens/Rite Aid because they often have promotions where it buy 1 lipbalm at $1.50 get $1.50 back in store credit. I get a lot of my supplies this way.

Looking at the ones in my stash all but one are petroleum free. Most are waxed based. I did not know about avoiding petroleum with patients with oxygen but will file this away in my mental file cabinet. Love learning something new

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