Congruency of Nasal Alar Pulse Oximetry and Arterial Blood Analysis in Patients with Burns Hospitalized in ICU

Introduction: Several pathological conditions can reduce blood supply to the organs, among which burns can be mentioned. By developing the volume depletion and reducing the cardiac contractility, burns can cause hypoperfusion. Further, in ICUs, since the finger pulse oximetryis commonly used instead of the measurement of the nasal alar oxygen saturation, the use of finger probe restricts pulse oximetry, especially in the cases of burns in four limbs. The present study is aimed to investigate the consistency between the nasal ala pulse Oximetry and arterial blood analysis in the patients with burns in 4 limbs and ears. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted by evaluating diagnostic tests on all of the 18to 60-year-old patients (N=51) with burns in four limbs and ears hospitalized in ICU. In the first 24h of the hospitalization, nasal alar pulse oximetry was performed and, simultaneously, an arterial blood specimen was sent to the laboratory to determine the oxygen saturation level. The obtained data were statistically analyzed using SPSS software. Results: According to the obtained results, 31.4% of the patients were female and 68.6% were male. The most frequent cause of the burns was gasoline burning (21.6%). Wilcoxon test revealed that the average percentage of the arterial blood oxygen saturation in pulse oximetry method was significantly higher than the arterial blood specimens (P = 0.0001). Furthermore, using the intraclass correlation, the consistency of the average percentage of the arterial blood oxygen saturation in both methods of pulse oximetry and arterial blood gas analysis was reported as weak (ICC= 0.234). Regarding gender, the consistency level was reported as weak (ICC= 0.275) and very weak (ICC= 0.115) in males and females, respectively. With respect to the age groups, in the 41-50-year-old age group, very good consistency was observed between the recorded values of the arterial blood oxygen saturation using nasal alar pulse oximetry and the arterial blood specimenin the patients with burns in four organs and ears; however, it was reported to be weak in the other age ranges. Conclusion: Level of consistency between the results of the percentage of the arterial blood oxygen saturation obtained from the methods of nasal alar pulse oximetry and arterial blood specimens was moderate and weak.