RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 A preliminary study of the prevalence of hypoxaemia, hyperoxaemia, hypercapnia and acidosis in hospital blood gas specimens
JF European Respiratory Journal
JO Eur Respir J
FD European Respiratory Society
SP p2031
VO 38
IS Suppl 55
A1 Ronan O'Driscoll
A1 Aram Rudenski
A1 Peter Turkington
A1 Luke Howard
YR 2011
UL http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/p2031.abstract
AB Over or under treatment of hypoxaemia can be dangerous. We studied 3524 blood gas specimens at a university hospital. 362 samples (10.2%) were hypoxaemic with oxygen saturation below 90% and 2.7% were severely hypoxaemic with saturation below 80%. 1074 samples (30%) were hyperoxaemic with PO2 >15.0 kPa.View this table:Tabe 1. Summary of blood gas results grouped according to oxygen saturation levelsThis study suggests that severe uncorrected hypoxaemia is relatively uncommon in hospital practice and is usually associated with respiratory rather than metabolic acidosis. Hyperoxaemia (30% of samples), hypercapnia (27% of samples) and respiratory acidosis (21% of samples) were relatively common.This suggests that oxygen needs to be used with more caution in hospitals in the light of recent studies showing increased mortality associated with hyperoxaemia in a range of common clinical conditions.