Oxygen mask or nasal catheter? An analysis

Abstract

In pursuit of cost-efficiency without compromising standards of patient care, a study was undertaken to compare the performances of a medium concentration facemask and a nasal catheter, by measuring the oxygen saturation levels of 40 post-operative patients. Statistical analysis revealed that when oxygen is delivered at 3 litres/minutes, there is no significant difference between the performances of these systems. Patients and nurses indicated a preference for the nasal catheter compared with the facemask. These findings are consistent with previous work in this area, and the wider use of the nasal catheter is called for in oxygen administration to selected post-operative patients.

Are nasal spectacles adequate for supplementary oxygen in patients after anaesthesia?

“…They not only found that patients maintained adequate oxygen saturations with cannulae, but that patients also kept the device in place. In another study, English and Brown found that the sex of the patient had no influence on the oxygen saturation scores when comparing the face mask and nasal catheter 5 . Hudes et al studied patients who were desaturated on arrival in the recovery ward 6 .…”

Patients’ and nurses’ perspectives on oxygen therapy: a qualitative study

“…2007). Although there is little recent published work, researchers have evaluated the effectiveness of low‐flow oxygen therapy devices in terms of satisfactory blood oxygen concentrations, usually measured by pulse oximetry (SpO 2 ), or arterial blood gas analysis (ABG) (English & Brown 1994, McBrien & Sellers 1995, Eastwood et al. 2008).…”

“…Those who receive oxygen via a low-flow device typically have minimal respiratory distress and can maintain adequate ventilatory patterns (Eastwood et al 2007). Although there is little recent published work, researchers have evaluated the effectiveness of low-flow oxygen therapy devices in terms of satisfactory blood oxygen concentrations, usually measured by pulse oximetry (SpO 2 ), or arterial blood gas analysis (ABG) (English & Brown 1994, McBrien & Sellers 1995, Eastwood et al 2008. Some earlier researchers have described patterns of supplemental oxygen use (Albin et al 1992, Gravil et al 1997 or the impact of device factors, such as size, shape and fit on oxygen delivery and patient oxygenation (Milross et al 1989, Ooi et al 1992.…”