Occurrence of hypoxia in the wards of a teaching hospital

OBJECTIVE: Appearance of hypoxia in a patient may be an indicator of a serious medical condition that can have grave consequences. Clinical evaluation fails to detect majority of the patients of hypoxia, and therefore, it may remain unnoticed in the wards. We planned to assess the magnitude of hypoxia in different wards of our tertiary care hospital. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We studied all the patients admitted in various medical and surgical wards during 1 week of study. Oxygen saturation (SpO(2)) was measured with the help of a pulse oximeter in all the patients who remained admitted for at least 24 h. Hypoxia was diagnosed in a patient when he had SpO(2) less than 90%. RESULTS: During the study period, 1167 patients were admitted in various wards of the hospital. Hypoxia was detected in 121 patients (10.36%). Among them, 7 (0.59%) patients were already having a diagnosis of respiratory failure, but were not on oxygen therapy while 5 (0.42%) patients were having SpO(2) less than 90% despite of oxygen therapy. In 109 (9.34%) patients, hypoxia was detected incidentally. CONCLUSION: Unnoticed hypoxia was detected in a significant number of the patients admitted in the wards of the hospital. Therefore, it is concluded that oxygen saturation measurements should be included with other vital parameters like pulse, temperature, and blood pressure, in the monitoring chart of all the admitted patients.