Question

CASE STUDIES Case 1 A 25-year-old woman has returned to a medical/surgical nursing unit following arn appendectomy. She has no history of lung disease and is wearing a nasal cannula delivering oxygen at 3 Umin. She is alert and oriented, with a respiratory rate of 18 breaths/min and a heart rate of 82 beats/min. Her current SpO2 (pulse oximeter reading) is 99% on the nasal cannula. Her physician orders "respiratory therapy protocol," and you are asked to assess this patient. Use the protocol found in Figure 2-2 in the text to help you answer the following questions 14. What are the clinical signs of hypoxia/hypoxemia? List at least three. A. B. C. 15. Using the oxygen therapy protocol, determine if the oxygen therapy is appropriate for this patient. Support your answer with information from the textbook.

Answer 1

14.

Hypoxia is the condition in which the oxygen at tissue level decreased. But it can't measured directly by laboratory values.

Hypoxemia is the condition where the arterial saturation PaO2 is below 80 percentage.

Clinical signs of hypoxaemia include

• cyanosis- skin colour changes vary from blue colour to cherry red.
• Cheyne's stoke respiration (irregular breathing)
• Tachycardia
• PaO2 value in oximeter below 80percentage

15.

As per oxygen therapy protocol if the oxygen saturation is above 92% continue the existing oxygen therapy.

As patient is having 99% of oxygen saturation, oxygen therapy through mask is sufficient.