Racial Disparities in Occult Hypoxemia and Clinically Based Mitigation Strategies to Apply in Advance of Technological Advancements.

Click here to purchase the article.

Pulse oximetry is the mainstay of patient oxygen monitoring. Measurement error from pulse oximetry is more common for those with darker skin pigmentation, yet this topic remains understudied, and evidence-based clinical mitigation strategies do not currently exist. Our objectives were to measure the rate of occult hypoxemia, defined as arterial oxygen saturation (S_aO2) < 88% when pulse oximeter oxygen saturation was between 92–96%, in a racially diverse critically ill population; to analyze degree, direction, and consistency of measurement error; and to develop a mitigation strategy that minimizes occult hypoxemia in advance of technological advancements.