The Pulse Oximeter: A Non-invasive Monitor of Oxygenation during Thoracic Surgery

D. M. Thys; E. Cohen; D. Girard; P. A. Kirschner; J. A. Kaplan

doi:10.1055/s-2007-1022178

The Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeon, Table of Contents

Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 1986; 34(6): 380-383
DOI: 10.1055/s-2007-1022178

The Pulse Oximeter: A Non-invasive Monitor of Oxygenation during Thoracic Surgery

D. M. Thys¹ , E. Cohen¹ , D. Girard¹ , P. A. Kirschner² , J. A. Kaplan¹

¹Department of Anesthesiology
²Department of Surgery, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, USA

Abstract

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Summary

The pulse oximeter continuously and non-invasively measures arterial saturation. The objective of the current study was to assess the value of this monitor during thoracic surgery with one-lung ventilation. A total of 108 pulse oximeter saturation readings (SaO₂[O|) were compared with PaO₂ and calculated saturation {SaO₂|C]) values. Hypoxia (PaO₂ < 70 mmHg) always resulted in a SaO₂((O) value below 95%. For the detection of hypoxia, the pulse oximeter had a sensitivity of 100 %, a specificity of 91 % and a predictability of 70%. The correlation between SaO₂(C) and SaO₂(O) was good (r = 0.895). In the samples with a PaO₂ below 100 mmHg the correlation between SaO₂ (C) and SaO₂(O) was significantly better when the temperature was at least 36 °C (r = 0.956 vs. r = 0. 706; p< 0.005) or when the cardiac index was greater than 2.5 l/min/m² (r = 0.896 vs r = 0.417; p < 0.01).

Key words

Pulse-oximetry - Monitoring - Oxygenation - One-lung ventilation

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