Long-term monitoring of arterial pO2 in burned patients

Five patients, who were treated in a special ward for burns were followed by continuous intra-arterial pO2 monitoring for a total of 1612 h (range 13-604 h). The pao2 catheter electrodes used were surface-heparinized, and inserted either in the radial or the femoral artery. Some electrodes were accidentally withdrawn. Recalibration was performed for two of the 10 electrodes used. These electrodes presented a changed sensitivity after heavy stretching of the sensor during the nursing. The sensitivity of one of these electrodes was altered downwards and the other one upwards. After recalibration the pao2 electrodes presented accurate values for the rest of the monitoring period. Without compensation for drift, the pao2 electrode readout was compared to the results of traditional blood-gas analysis, which served as a reference. The regression function found was y = -0.62 + 1.04 chi (r = 0.93, SD = 1.40, n = 60). The blood flow velocity around some of the pao2 electrodes was studied by the pulsed Doppler technique. There was no influence of the surface-heparinized pao2 electrode on the femoral artery blood flow velocity as compared to the contralateral, non-catheterized femoral artery. The blood flow velocity proximal to a traditional radial artery catheter was compared to the flow velocity in the contralateral radial artery containing a surface-heparinized pao2 electrode. The surface-heparinized electrode did not decrease the mean flow velocity in contrast with the traditional radial artery catheter, which had to be withdrawn after 8 days because of clotting. The surface-heparinized catheter electrode was still monitoring pao2 accurately after 25 days in the artery, which was the longest period studied for a particular sensor.