Oxygen saturation of patients recovering from electroconvulsive therapy

Oxygen saturation was measured by pulse oximetry in 33 psychiatric patients breathing air during recovery from 60 episodes of electroconvulsive therapy. Desaturation to less than 90% occurred in 17% of patients. Oxygen saturation values in recovery were significantly lower than pre-operative saturations (p = 0.0014 using ANOVA), with a significant difference (p = 0.001) for up to 5 min in recovery.