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Transcutaneous Oxygen Measurement in Adult Intensive Care
Author(s) -
Löfgren O.
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
acta anaesthesiologica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.738
H-Index - 107
eISSN - 1399-6576
pISSN - 0001-5172
DOI - 10.1111/j.1399-6576.1979.tb01484.x
Subject(s) - medicine , bradycardia , oxygen , anesthesia , surgery , heart rate , blood pressure , chemistry , organic chemistry
Transcutaneous oxygen measurement (Ptco 2 ‐measurement) gives by a non‐invasive technique continuous information about central Po 2 The method has as yet been tested mainly on newborns, and systematic studies of the applicability of the method on adults are still few. The current systematic study reports on consecutive Ptco 2 measurements in 15 patients, all with indwelling arterial cathelers: 13 of the patients were artificially ventilated; 5 patients had normal body structure and normal skin circulation; 5 patients were obese and had normal skin circulation; and 5 patients were hypothermic with a normal heart frequency or slight bradycardia. The Radiometer equipment TCM1 was used. The electrode surface temperature was 45.0°C (within ±0.2°C). The oxygen concentration in the inspired air was altered several times for all patients, and arterial samples were drawn at a stable Ptco 2 level. On average, seven samples were drawn from each patient. The correlation between Ptco 2 and Pao 2 was highly significant in 4/5 patients, in both the “obese patient” group and the “normal patient” group. In the “hypo‐thermic patient” group, the correlation between Ptco 2 and Pa o2 was highly statistically significant in 2/5 patients. The regression line between Ptco 2 and Pao 2 was calculated for each patient, and a mean regression line was obtained for each group. It was found that the regression line in the “obese patient” group was displaced to the right and parallel to the regression line in the “normal patient” group, while the regression line in the “hypothermic patient” group was less sloping and showed a higher intercept. The Ptco 2 monitoring technique reliably reflects changes in the central oxygenation of adult intensive care patients. In some patients with decreased skin circulation, the relationship between Ptco 2 and Pao 2 seemed to be constant for the same patient, yielding statistically significant correlations. However, the study cannot determine whether this would be true in all clinical situations; the relationship between Ptco 2 and Pao 2 should therefore be checked frequently when measurements are performed in patients with decreased skin circulation. The author's experience with the Ptco 2 monitoring method in patients near death has been consistent with the obvious fact that the reliability of the method decreases with decreased skin circulation.