Basic Working Knowledge of Pulse Oximetry among Healthcare Workers and Patients Requiring Oxygen Therapy in a Tertiary Care Center in North India

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patients can be misleading and result in inappropriate decisionmaking compromising patient safety.3 There is limited data on the basic working knowledge of POD in healthcare workers and patients requiring oxygen therapy in the Indian population.Most of the previous studies are limited by their use of small sample sizes and convenience sampling techniques.Hence, we planned this study to evaluate the basic working knowledge of pulse oximetry among the healthcare workers and patients prescribed oxygen therapy in a tertiary care center in North India. IntroductIonPulse oximetry is an omnipresent and noninvasive means of assessing oxygen saturation.Pulse oximetry devices (PODs) use is increasing among healthcare workers and general population, especially after the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.1 However, pulse oximetry only provides the rough assessment of percentage of hemoglobin saturation with oxygen in most cases.Also, the accuracy of oxygen saturation (SpO 2 ) reading of POD when compared to the oxygen saturation in arterial blood (SaO 2 ) reading is highest in the range of 70-100%. 2 In the current era, SpO 2 is defined as the "fifth vital" sign.3 In the early 1970s, pulse oximetry was first developed in Japan.4 Currently available POD are incorporated with two light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that emit the red (660 nm) and infrared (940 nm) wavelengths.On passing the light via a wellperfused part of the body, deference in absorbance of specific wavelengths of light and the oxyhemoglobin/deoxyhemoglobin ratio is detected by the inbuilt algorithm of POD.This calculated result is depicted as the percentage of SpO 2 in POD. 5 Pulse oximetry devices (PODs) have various shortcomings which may lead to false readings.Pulse oximetry may give incorrect readings in various clinical situations including ambient lightning, low perfusions, nail polish, during motion, arrhythmias, and methemoglobinemia.2,5,6 Other factors that can confound the results include pH, temperature, and quality of POD. 6 Unawareness about such limitation of POD among the health workers and the 1-

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