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Pulse Oximetry, Part 3

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The oxygen saturation should always be above 95%. In patients with long standing respiratory disease or those with cyanotic congenital heart disease readings may be lower and reflect the severity of the underlying disease.

In intensive care oximeters are used extensively during mechanical ventilation and frequently detect problems with oxygenation before they are noticed clinically. They are used as a guide for weaning from ventilation and also to help assess whether a patient's oxygen therapy is adequate. In some hospitals oximeters are used on the wards and in casualty departments. When patients are sedated for procedures such as endoscopy, oximetry has been shown to increase safety by alerting the staff to unexpected hypoxia.

Oximeters give no information about the level of CO2 and therefore have limitations in the assessment of patients developing respiratory failure due to CO2 retention. On rare occasions oximeters may develop faults and like all monitoring the reading should always be interpreted in association with the patient's clinical condition. Never ignore a reading which suggests the patient is becoming hypoxic. There is no doubt that pulse oximetry is the greatest advance in patient monitoring for many years and it is hoped that their use will eventually become routine during anaesthesia and surgery world wide. Since pulse oximeters cost at least £1200 their purchase will depend mainly on economic considerations.