Forehead SpO2 monitoring compared to finger SpO2 recording in emergency transport

Abstract

Continuous peripheral oxygen saturation monitoring using a finger pulse oximeter is standard in prehospital emergency medicine. Forehead peripheral oxygen saturation monitoring has been enhanced for better performance during movement and in cold ambient temperatures, both of which are common during emergency transport. We compared a new forehead monitor with standard finger pulse oximeter. The forehead technique had significantly fewer mean (SD) alarms per patient (3.0 (2.2)) than the finger pulse oximeter (7.8 (4.0)) and shorter durations of malfunction (76 (60) s compared to 333 (170) s) when using the finger pulse oximeter. We conclude that measuring peripheral oxygen saturation monitoring with a forehead sensor provides better monitoring quality in emergency care.