City Research Online

Abstract

Pulse oximetry is being used in everyday clinical practice in anesthesia utilizing peripheral saturation sensors. However, it may be unreliable in certain clinical situations such as peripheral hypoperfusion. Similar situations occur in burns patients and more importantly burns to extremities which limit the sites available for measurement of peripheral oxygen saturation (SpO2). To overcome these limitations, the esophagus has been investigated as an alternative measurement site, as perfusion may be preferentially preserved centrally. A miniaturized reflectance esophageal saturation (SpO2 probe has been constructed utilizing infrared and red photodiodes and a photodetector. Our case study was aimed at evaluating the reliability of esophageal pulse oximetry in a major burns infant. Measurable photoplethysmographic (PPG) traces and SpO2 values were obtained in the neonatal esophagus. It was found that the esophageal pulse oximeter results were in good agreement with oxygen saturation measurements obtained by a commercial ear lobe pulse oximeter. This study suggests that the esophagus can be used as an alternative site for monitoring arterial blood oxygen saturation by pulse oximetry in burned infants.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2013 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.
Subjects:	R Medicine > R Medicine (General)
Departments:	School of Science & Technology > Engineering

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