On 01-09-97 Mike Bouser wrote to Anybody!... 
  
 MB>         On almost every occasion I've been present with a patient 
 MB> presenting  
 MB> with some type of difficulty breathing, EMT-P's and/or ER  
 MB> nurses just look at the machine and say, "Oh, he's got good  
 MB> saturation...", when to me (in all my inexperience) these  
 MB> people need O2. One in particular was a patient who ran out  
 MB> of breath at the end of his sentences. His sat was >95%.  
  
 MB>         One question I have is this: How accurate is the  
 MB> pulse-oximeter at guaging the saturation of the patient?  
 MB> Are you just reading the patients finger or is that truly a  
 MB> good indication of overall saturation? 
 
 Mike, I'm not going to tell you that this is easy because it's not. 
 The pulse-oximeter is fairly accurate under most conditions but it's 
 results have to be compared with the clinical presentation of the 
 patient.  In the case of the patient above; it appears that GCS is 15, 
 and that adequate oxygenation is taking place therefore the problem is 
 not hypoxia but some other condition. Apply your diagnostic skills to  
 each case and you might find that there are alternate possibilities other 
 than pump the O2 to the pt. Also, is there already supplemental O2 going? 
  
It would have been nice and better for your growth if the nurses and para- 
medics would have answered your questions instead of ignoring them, for how 
else do we learn? 
  
 
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 * OFFLINE 1.58 * I'm A Doctor Jim ,NOT a paramedic! 
--- Maximus 3.00
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