Abstract

For decades, the monitoring of mixed venous oxygen saturation, SvO₂ has been performed invasively using fibre-optic catheters. This procedure is not without risk as complications may arise from catheterisation. The group has devised a new non-invasive venous oximetry method which involves inducing regular modulations of the venous blood volume and associated measurement of those modulations using optical means. A clinical investigation was conducted in Glenfield Hospital, UK to evaluate the sensitivity of the new technique to haemodynamic changes such as Cardiac Output (CO) in intraoperative and postoperative cardiac patients. Preliminary trials on patients recovering from cardiac surgery yielded an average correlation of r = 0.72 between CO at different Intra Aortic Balloon Pump (IABP) augmentation levels and SvO₂ measured by the new venous oximeter. In intraoperative patients undergoing off-pump cardiac surgery, SvO₂ recorded by the new technique responded to unplanned events such as a cardiac arrest. CONCLUSION: The new venous oximetry technique is a promising technique which responds to haemodynamic changes such as CO and with further development might offer an alternative means of monitoring SvO₂ non-invasively.

© 2003 SPIE