Use of visible spectrophotometry to assess tissue oxygenation in the colostomy stoma

The aims of this study were to determine the normal range of tissue oxygenation (SO(2)) in the "mature" colostomy stomacolostomy stoma and to investigate whether there were any diurnal variationsdiurnal variations in the SO(2) values. Ten patients with an end colostomy for a minimum duration of three months and using conventional colostomy bags were included in this study. Tissue SO(2) Tissue SO(2) was measured on the stoma using visible wavelength spectroscopy (Whitland RM 200, Whitland Research, Whitland, UK) The measurements were carried out on each patient on three occasions: the first early in the morning (designated "baseline"), a second after 6 h and the third on the next day at 24 h. The results showed that the mean baseline SO(2) in the colostomy stoma was 77.6 +/- 6.8 and there were no differences in the SO(2) measurements between the baseline, 6 h and the 24 h values. There were also no differences in the SO(2) values between the four quadrants of the stomas. In conclusion, visible wavelength spectrophotometry can reliably measure stomal SO(2) in a non-invasive way. No significant diurnal variations in the stomal SO(2) values were detected.