The effect of differential site of application of the pulse oximeter in critically ill children seen in a tertiary health center

Introduction: Pulse oximeter is useful in the management of the critically ill child; it gives meaningful information for immediate clinical decision-making. The fingertip probe is the most common supplied probe in most hospitals, especially in resource-limited settings, and these may not fit all pediatric age groups; hence, it is not uncommon to see such probes been applied to bigger sized digits such as the toe in younger aged children. This study therefore sought to determine if there was any difference in the SpO2 readings from those varied sites. Materials and Methods: This study was cross sectional involving 100 children seen in our pediatric emergency unit. Results: There were 59 (59.0%) males and 41 (41.0%) females with male to female ratio of 1.4:1. The age ranged from 1 to 12 years with mean of 6.0 ± 3.4 years. The mean pulse oximetry between the various pairs was almost similar for all the sites; however, this observation was not statistically significant (t = 0.269, df = 70, P = 0.789). There were significant agreements between all the studied methods of comparison of SpO2. However, this was most noticeable for the right index finger and left index finger. Conclusion: This study showed that SpO2 can be measured from any digit.