The use of pulse oximetry in clinical veterinary anaesthesia

Abstract

A commercial human pulse oximeter was used in several species to measure heart rate and arterial oxygen saturation (SaO₂), and the results compared with those from an ECG and bench oximeter. The heart rates were always the same, but differences in the SaO₂ ranged between 4.2 per cent to 10.3 per cent. Correlation coefficients between the two SaO₂ measurement techniques ranged from 0.81 to 0.94, depending on the species investigated.