CAN YOU TRUST THAT PULSE OXIMETRY READING? │ EP126
Notas do episódio
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Welcome to the Atomic Anesthesia podcast hosted by CRNA professor Dr. Rhea Temmermand and Co-Founder Sachi Lord. On this show, you'll hear clear, clinically grounded discussions designed for nurse anesthesia residents and CRNAs who want to feel more confident in complex pharmacology, physiology, and real-world anesthesia decision-making.
Your patient's SpO2 reads 100 percent, but they were just pulled out of a house fire. Can you trust it? In Week 4 of our 12-week SEE/NCE series, we break down the assumptions behind that number so you can predict every misleading reading the boards throw at you.
In this episode:
- What SpO2 measures, and why a perfect number doesn't rule out anemia or low cardiac output
- The Beer-Lambert law, red vs infrared light at 660 and 940 nm, and how the AC/DC ratio finds the pulse
- Functional vs fractional saturation and the oxyhemoglobin curve landmarks
- Why SpO2 can hide a big drop in PaO2 and can't monitor ventilation
- Carboxyhemoglobin, methemoglobin and the dyes that fool the probe
- Low perfusion, venous pulsation, probe site and response time
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- SEE/NCE Study Plan — a structured, week-by-week plan to pass your boards
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Mentioned in this episode:
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