Pulse oximeter is one of the most commonly employed monitoring device in the critical care setup. It is important device for respiratory monitoring.
Most people do not need normally, though during the COVID-19 pandemic, many people are using them to check their oxygen levels.
The human eye is poor at recognizing hypoxemia. Even under ideal conditions, skilled observers cannot consistently detect hypoxemia until the oxygen (O2) saturation is below 80%.
Having a pulse oximeter in these cases allow to monitor blood oxygen level and know when need to increase supplemental oxygen flow rate to maintain.
Hemoglobin (Hb) and oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO2) differ in their absorption of red and infrared light.
The volume of arterial blood in tissue and therefore light absorption by the hemoglobin changes during the pulse.
Device have red and infrared low voltage light emitting diodes (LED) witch serve as light sources. The emitted light is transmitted through the tissue.
Later collected by the photodetector, converted into digital signals and sent to the microprocessor of the device.
This increase patient safety by alerting the hospital staff to the onset of hypoxia during or following surgery.
An oximeter indirectly measures the amount of oxygen that is carried by your blood. It does not measure the carbon dioxide level in the blood flow.