Abstract

Medical history is filled with widely applied therapeutic habits that replicate longstanding practices based upon theories that have no true scientific background. Treatment of acute myocardial infarction has not escaped this general, though unfortunate, rule. Thus, in the past, lidocaine has been used on a systematic basis in patients with acute myocardial infarction because of its antiarrhythmic properties, until serious doubt was raised upon a potential toxic effect that might result in increased mortality[1]. It is the merit of Wijesinghe and colleagues to have thoroughly looked at the evidence available as regards the clinical effects of oxygen therapy, a commonly used treatment at the acute stage of myocardial infarction[2].