Pulse oximetry

Description

The human eye is poor at recognizing hypoxemia. Even under idealconditions, skilled observers cannot consistently detect hypoxemia until theoxygen (O2) saturation is below 80% [1]. Thedifficulty that physicians have in detecting hypoxemia was recently exemplifiedin a study of over 14000 patients being evaluated at the UCLA EmergencyDepartment [2]. Patients were monitored by oximetry butrecordings were given to physicians only after they completed their initialassessment. Changes in diagnostic testing and treatment were most likely at anO2saturation of 89%, and changes were actually less common at lowersaturations, probably because the physicians were able to detect evidence ofhypoxemia without requiring a pulse oximeter.

Resources

Name Format Description Link
21 Visit the original government dataset for complete information, documentation, and data access. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC137227/

Tags

  • nih
  • oxygen-saturation
  • pulse-oximetry
  • respiratory-monitoring

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