Oxygen therapy in the late postoperative period, the evaluation of three different methods of administration

ABSTRACT

As postoperative hypoxaemia became a well-recognized and documented complication after general anaesthesia and surgery, therapeutic oxygen administration immediately after hypoxaemia recognition has been demonstrated to improve mean arterial oxygen saturation [Spo[2]], therefore this study evaluated three modes of oxygen delivery devices commonly used i.e., the Hudson face mask, the nasal cannula and the Venturi mask in the late postoperative period i.e., on the second postoperative day on 90 post-surgical patients who had abdominal operations. They were monitored with a pulse oximeter and those whose Spo[2] levels were patients]. The devices were randomly used each for a period of 30 minutes at 3 liter min[-1] of non humidified oxygen, the effect and comfort of each device was evaluated after each treatment by a questionnaire. The three devices effectively increased the Spo[2] levels to similar significant levels, but the degree of comfortability was the highest [90%], when using the binasal cannula, although few patients complained of mild dryness. Therefore we recommended the use of the nasal cannula for oxygen administration in the late postoperative period