By: Phillip Robinson

For patients who depend on supplemental oxygen due to their chronic condition there are a series of factors that they have to contend with on a daily basis.

Lack of oxygen and therefore low oxygen blood saturation has more implications than shortage of breath. It also means that insufficient oxygen is irrigated through the brain and other organs, potentially damaging these organs. Fatigue is also caused by lack of oxygen.

There a certain things we need to stay alive. Food and water are an example of this. We can survive a month without food, a few days (depending on heat and level of exertion) without eating. But survival without oxygen is reduced to minutes – and very few at that.

The physical effects of insufficient oxygen appear almost instantaneously, but for patients who have been prescribed with supplemental oxygen, the lack of it sometimes happens at a reduced rate. This means that they are under a risk of not realizing how it is affecting them and so cannot take the appropriate corrective measures – increase their oxygen intake.

One way of identifying how much oxygen is in the blood is through an oximeter. A finger pulse oximeter indirectly measures the amount of oxygen saturation in the blood. It is a non invasive and very practical machine. The patient inserts a finger into the oximeter which emits light. Without going into the technical workings of an oximeter the result is that it calculates the percentage of oxygen saturation. Normal oxygen blood saturation is around 95% and upwards. Most patients on supplemental oxygen do not achieve these levels even with the extra oxygen and it is vitally important they maintain them as high as possible.

Pulse oximeters cannot provide a full picture for the patient (for example levels of carbon dioxide), but they do provide an immediate warning if oxygen levels are reduced.

Over the last few years their use has increased dramatically making them a common, hand held device for people on supplemental oxygen.

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