Although supplemental oxygen is an essential element of patient care for a wide range of clinical conditions, it compromises both carbon dioxide and peripheral capillary O2 saturation monitoring methods, making it difficult to detect respiratory depression. However, that issue may be resolved by the development of a prototype intelligent O2 flowmeter, which delivers supplemental O2 at a variable rate, and only during inhalation.
As Joseph A. Orr, PhD, research professor of anesthesiology at the