Research to be featured at the annual conference of the Society of Critical Care Medicine will show that noninvasive minute ventilation monitoring is more accurate than pulse oximetry.

 A study of 220 post-operative patients at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital found that 64 percent of pulse oximetry alarms were false alarms, said lead author Dr. Christopher Voscopoulos, of Contra Costa Medical Center of Martinez, Calif, who is board certified in Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Management.  In the six cases of real respiratory depression among the patient group, noninvasive monitoring of respiratory volume, known as minute ventilation, identified the condition before pulse oximetry monitors.

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