[Mixed venous versus central venous oxygen saturation in intensive medicine]

Mixed venous oxygen saturation (SvO2) has been established as a useful guide in observing whole body oxygenation. Since SvO2 provides limited information about adequate tissue oxygenation for a specific organ, the usefulness of central venous saturation (ScvO2) as a guide was analysed, which is a less invasive parameter. In 19 ICU patients 44 pairs of blood samples were drawn from a separate central venous catheter and from the tip of an SG-catheter. The correlation of oxygen partial pressures was 0.687 and the correlation of the saturation reached 0.779. The calculation of venous admixture showed a correlation of 0.901. It is concluded that ScvO2 yields adequate information on the oxygen saturation of venous return.