Pulse oximeters – can measure your blood oxygen saturation

For patients who are dependent on supplemental oxygen due to their chronic condition there are a number of factors that they have to deal with on a day to day basis.

Lack of oxygen and therefore low blood oxygen saturation has more implications than shortness of breath. It also means that not enough oxygen is flowing through the brain and other organs, which could damage them. Fatigue is also caused by lack of oxygen.

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

The physical effects of oxygen insufficiency appear almost instantaneously, but for patients who have been prescribed supplemental oxygen, oxygen deprivation sometimes occurs at a reduced rate. This means that they are at risk of not realizing how it is affecting them and therefore unable to take the proper corrective action: increase their oxygen intake.

One way to identify 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 operation of an oximeter, the result is that it calculates the percentage of oxygen saturation. Normal blood oxygen saturation is around 95% and above. Most patients receiving supplemental oxygen do not reach these levels even with supplemental oxygen and it is vitally important that they keep them as high as possible.

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

In recent years, their use has increased dramatically, making them a common handheld device for people receiving supplemental oxygen.