The Curbsiders Internal Medicine Podcast #350 Rapid Response Series: Acute Hypoxemia
50 snips
Aug 15, 2022 AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Hypoxemia Versus Hypoxia
- Hypoxemia is low oxygen in the blood and differs from hypoxia, which is low tissue oxygen.
- Pulse oximetry measures saturation while blood gas measures dissolved PaO2, giving different but complementary data.
Oxygen Content And Delivery Matter
- Oxygen content depends mainly on hemoglobin and saturation, not just saturation alone.
- Oxygen delivery equals content times cardiac output, so anemia or low output can cause tissue hypoxia despite normal sats.
How Pulse Oximetry Works
- A pulse oximeter shines red and infrared light through skin to estimate hemoglobin saturation.
- It reports saturation indirectly while arterial blood gas directly measures PaO2 (dissolved oxygen).