pulse ox and fx's

[JPINFV]

no meaning neither? when a high index or trauma alert comes into the hospital it is a requirement. Trauma alerts require continuous pulse ox monitoring. so in that case, which extremity?

Let me ask you a question. Which arm (the one with the suspected fracture or the one without) do you think has better perfusion?

[ccmedoc]

No as not on the injured extremity....sorry about the ambiguity......No need to use a pulse ox on the injured limb....color/cap refill/pulses/temp.....all you need for transport...doppler if you have it and are worried about circulation..

If you have to monitor pulse oximetry for a trauma--find an uninjured limb or body part.

pulse ox is not the end-all-be-all of diagnostic equipment..you'd do better with your observations for an injured extremity.IMHO

[brentoli]

I trust my sight and sound to monitor for impending arrest better than I do a pulse ox.

[donedeal]

I trust my sight and sound to monitor for impending arrest better than I do a pulse ox.

My experience is based in the hospital setting. It's not practical to sit in the room with your patient for hours in order to monitor for potential arrest while you have 4 other patients in the trauma area. Yes, we are in the room until the pt is considered stable or deceased. But you never know what could happen, that is why we monitor.

[brentoli]

Explain how the pulse ox, which is one of the least accurate pieces of equipment (based on personal experience) is able to show you arrest is impending?

[Just Plain Ruff]

I wonder if studies have been done to compare the pulse ox reliability?

Take a patient with an Art line and also a pulse ox on. Compare the two.

Wonder what the discrepancies would be?

[VentMedic]

I wonder if studies have been done to compare the pulse ox reliability?

Take a patient with an Art line and also a pulse ox on. Compare the two.

Wonder what the discrepancies would be?

Those studies were done many times and were summitted for medical instrumentation approval before any pulse oximeter is allowed on the market.

That is also how we check accuracy of our pulse ox in the ICU. Of course, as far as PaO2 and SpO2 or even SaO2, you can have a PaO2 of 90 or 490 mmHg and still have a sat of 100%. A patient that is bleeding and has a Hb of 5 will be short of breath and still be 100% SpO2 but with a seriously diminished carrying capacity. The pulse ox actually tells very little about the oxygenation of a patient until some other clinical correlation is made

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[CBEMT]

Based on the signifant injuries required to meet trauma alert criteria, which could include resp compromise and decreased perfusion. To monitor the patient for impending resp/cardiac failure

If any part of that statement had been referring to CO2 capnography monitoring, I may have given you a cookie.

Oh well.