Study of role of pulse oxymetry during nonsedated upper gastrointestinal endoscopic procedure

Abstract

Background: Hypoxia episodes have been observed in association with endoscopy and various studies have been performed to identify the risk factors .The effect of smoking, deoxygenation during endoscopy and duration of procedure have been studied. With the advent of pulse oximetry, it is possible to obtain an accurate measurement of hemoglobin oxygen desaturation. There are many reports concerning arterial oxygenation during upper gastrointestinal endoscopy with sedation, little information is available concerning oxygenation in non-sedated endoscopies. The results of this study have extensive relevance because of increasing incidence of tobacco users, smokers and sedations during upper gastrointestinal endoscopies.Methods : This study including 300 patients was carried out from July 2014 to September 2016 in gastroenterology clinic of medicine department at a large teaching hospital in Western Maharashtra. 250 patients underwent diagnostic procedures and 50 underwent therapeutic procedures.Result: A significant correlation was found between oxygen desaturation and patients above 60 years of age (P< 0.01)in our study. There were 40.67% non-smoker patients with hypoxia and 21.33% non-smoker patients without hypoxia. In this study, 92 patients underwent UGI endoscopy for a duration of less than 5 minutes out of which only 24 (26.08 %) developed O2 desaturation.Conclusion: It was concluded from the study patients with age >60 years, severe anaemia, presence of ascites, patients showing adverse events during the endoscopy procedure can be considered at the risk for developing oxygen desaturation during nonsedated UGI endoscopy.