Tissue Oximetry and Clinical Outcomes

A number of different technologies have been developed to measure tissue oxygenation, with the goal of identifying tissue hypoxia and guiding therapy to prevent patient harm. In specific cases, tissue oximetry may provide clear indications of decreases in tissue oxygenation such as that occurring during acute brain ischemia. However, the causation between tissue hemoglobin-oxygen desaturation in one organ (e.g., brain or muscle) and global outcomes such as mortality, intensive care unit length of stay, and remote organ dysfunction remains more speculative. In this review, we describe the current state of evidence for predicting clinical outcomes from tissue oximetry and identify several issues that need to be addressed to clarify the link between tissue oxygenation and outcomes. We focus primarily on the expanding use of near-infrared spectroscopy to assess a venous-weighted mixture of venous and arterial hemoglobin-oxygen saturation deep in tissues such as brain and muscle. Our analysis finds that more work is needed in several areasestablishing threshold prediction values for tissue desaturation–related injury in specific organs, defining the types of interventions required to correct changes in tissue oxygenation, and defining the effect of interventions on outcomes. Furthermore, well-designed prospective studies that test the hypothesis that monitoring oxygenation status in one organ predicts outcomes related to other organs need to be done. Finally, we call for more work that defines regional variations in tissue oxygenation and improves technology for measuring and even imaging oxygenation status in critical organs. Such studies will contribute to establishing that monitoring and imaging of tissue oxygenation will become routine in the care of high-risk patients because the monitors will provide outputs that direct therapy to improve clinical outcomes.