New Noninvasive Method for the Assessment of Central Venous Oxygen Saturations in Critically Ill Patients

Abstract

To compare noninvasive external jugular vein oxygen saturations (SjvO2) and central venous oxygen saturation (ScvO2) from a blood sample in patients admitted to the intensive care unit. A prospective, comparative, monocentric clinical trial design was used. The study was performed in the Department of Anaesthesiology, Pharmacology, Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine, University Hospitals of Geneva (Switzerland). A total of 79 patients were enrolled; patients with confirmed COVID-19 infection requiring invasive mechanical ventilation (patients with COVID-19, n=36) and patients after liver transplantation (posttransplant patients, n=43). Simultaneous measurement of SjvO2 by near-infrared spectroscopy and ScvO2 from central venous blood samples using a blood gas analyzer in stable hemodynamic conditions. A strong linear correlation was evidenced in both the COVID-19 and posttransplant patient groups between the 2 modalities. The Bland-Altman analysis showed low bias in accordance with low percentage error in both groups (0.57% and 8.09% for patients with COVID-19; 0.00% and 13.72% for posttransplant patients). Central venous oxygen saturation can be estimated reasonably by the continuous noninvasive measurement of SjvO2 using near-infrared spectroscopy.