In the modern market of medical equipment, many types of various devices are presented. Such a variety, of course, is an extremely positive fact, but at the same time complicates the choice: some potential users simply do not know the purpose of these or those devices and do not have a clue about how they work.
One of these devices, which has recently appeared in the medical arsenal and has proven itself well, is a pulse oxygen meter for measuring the oxygen content in the blood. Its value is difficult to overestimate. But first things first.
During the day, the human body consumes about 10 m3 of air, while the heart pumps about 7 tons of blood through the circulatory system. All this titanic work is necessary in order to saturate the arterial blood with oxygen and provide them with all organs and systems. The human body is universal: it can exist for about a month without food and for several days does not experience an acute need for water, providing itself with internal reserves. However, without oxygen, it is unable to function for two to three minutes.
Since the supply of oxygen to arterial blood is a prerequisite for life, then the pulse oximeter has acquired the status of a necessary and highly demanded medical device.
More recently, to determine the degree of oxygen saturation in the blood, the patient had to undergo a number of tests, which greatly complicated the diagnosis. Ambulance crews had to use the old methods in everyday practice: use a mirror to determine breathing, feel the pulse to check the heartbeat, and other far from perfect methods. Such manipulations required considerable time and did not differ in high accuracy, and therefore, the number of fatal outcomes was significant, since sometimes the patient simply didn’t get to the provision of therapeutic care.
According to the specialists of Technologies for Life LLC, the appearance of pulse oximeters has radically changed the situation in medical practice. The device is convenient to use, reliable and accurate, characterized by compact dimensions and the presence of additional functions.
Structurally, the pulse oximeter consists of a display, a microprocessor and a sensor built directly into the device or mounted on the finger, less often on the earlobe, and even less often on the nose wing. All devices are equipped with the option of a sound signal proportionally reflecting the level of blood oxygen saturation.
Today on sale you can find not only stationary devices, usually used in medical institutions, but also portable models, in particular - , which makes it possible to always have a similar device at hand. And this means - now it is equally simple to determine blood oxygen saturation both in specialized health care institutions and at home.