Pulse oximetry

The pulse oximetry is a procedure which measure the oxygen level in blood transcutaneous, non-invasively without the need of blood probe.  The normal range lays between 95-100%. #

During the measurement an IR sensor will be attached to the skin. The device measures the light absorption during the time it sends light through the skin and the blood vessel. The result shown correlate to the oxygen level in the tissue. This test doesn’t hurt and the child doesn’t feel anything during the test. 

The pulse oximetrie belongs to the routine examination in the pediatric cardiology and nowadays belongs to the routine monitoring on the intensive care units.

Ist known that congenital heart disease appears at approx. 1% of all new births worldwide. In most cases the newborn with congenital heart disease will look mostly normal and detoriate in the upcoming few days following birth. That why it is very important to follow up those newborns within the 3rd and 10th day of life.

In many publications it was shown that measuring the blood oxygen in newborn at the first day of life in between the 6th and 12th hours of life can rise the chance of detecting those newborns who suffer from a serious, life threatening cardiac disease.