The availability and use of oxygen saturation monitoring in primary care in order to assess asthma severity

Abstract

Introduction:

The BTS/SIGN guideline recommends oxygen saturation (SaO₂) monitoring as an objective measure of acute asthma severity, particularly in children, in both primary and secondary care. We assessed the availability and use of SaO₂ monitoring for acute asthma assessment in primary care.

Methods:

Fax and telephone questionnaire of Primary Care services in the Edinburgh region to assess use of SaO₂ monitoring in the past 24 months, in association with a 24-month retrospective assessment of A&E attendances with acute wheeze. Children over 12 months of age registered with eligible general practices attending A&E with wheeze and/or asthma were included.

Results:

There were replies from 103 general practices (100%) and eight Out-of-hours cooperatives (100%). Oxygen saturation monitoring was available in four general practices (3.9%) and three Out-of-hours cooperatives (37.5%). 1408 children attended A&E with wheeze/asthma, 721 referred by primary care. Oxygen saturation monitoring was available to 7.9% of A&E attendees from primary care, but documented in only 1.8% of primary care referrals.

Conclusions:

SaO₂ monitoring is not widely available in primary care and is infrequently used for the assessment of acute asthma. SaO₂ measurement as an adjunct to clinical assessment of asthma in primary care needs encouragement.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (326.4 KB).