Title: Corience: Pulse oximetry as tool to detect critical congenital heart defects
Headings: Pulse oximetry as tool to detect critical congenital heart defects
Pulse oximetry as tool to detect critical congenital heart defects
Critical congenital heart disease
Hypoxemia as common feature
Pulse oximetry to detect hypoxemia in newborn infants
Open questions and problems
Recommendations and Conclusions of AHA and AAP

Content: Controversial results were also achieved by different studies with respect to a threshold value below which hypoxemia can be assumed. According to the two organisations, hypoxemia is present if the oxygen saturation is below 95%. Another question concerns the positioning of the probe to measure the oxygen saturation. This can be done either at the hand or foot of the newborn infant. AHA and AAP recommend positioning the probe at the foot. The most profound objection is the fact that even routine pulse oximetry cannot detect all forms of critical congenital heart defects. Recommendations and Conclusions of AHA and AAP
In their statement AHA and AAP confirm the potential of pulse oximetry to detect critical congenital heart defects that would otherwise go unnoticed. They also point to the cost and time effectiveness of this tool compared, for example, to the very accurate technique of echocardiography. With respect to its usefulness in clinical practice, AHA and AAP call for further and larger studies to assess the best way of implementing this tool for routine use in different delivery systems, as well as its impact in the long term. Furthermore, the organisations call for informing those concerned – parents and caretakers –that pulse oximetry cannot detect all cases of critical congenital heart defects.