Sunday, March 14, 2010

Sunday March 14, 2010


Q: What is “oxygen saturation gap”?


Answer:
The “oxygen saturation gap” is the difference between the calculated oxygen saturation from a standard blood gas machine and the reading from a pulse oximeter. If it is greater than 5%, the patient’s hemoglobin may be abnormal, representing carbon monoxide poisoning, methemoglobinemia, or sulfhemoglobinemia.