Directly Heated Transcutaneous Oxygen Sensor

Abstract

Transcutaneous measurement of blood gases is gaining increasing interest in patient monitoring, mainly due to its non-invasiveness. In spite of many practical successes (Huch and Huch, 1975, Eberhard et al., 1975), especially in monitoring of newborns, this technique is not without disadvantages. Some of these problems are of little importance in patient monitoring such as the deviation at high PO₂ obtained during oxygen therapy due to venous admixture. Other problems such as the necessity of heating the sensor to 43 or 44 °C, as well as the variability of the ratio tcPO₂/P_aO₂ from patient to patient and in a single subject from hypoxia to hyperoxia (Goeckenjan and Strasser, 1977) and with changing blood flow, restrict the applicability of the method.