Monitoring the Anesthetized Patient: An Analysis of Confusions in Vital Sign Reports

Abstract

In the domain of anesthesia, auditory displays for respiratory monitoring have been suggested that could accompany the long-standing pulse oximetry system. However, research results to date suggest that participants' ability to identify physiological changes with respiratory sonification is not as great as it is for pulse oximetry. The reasons for this have not been established. Some possibilities are that respiratory parameters may be inherently more dynamic and may have greater intercorrelations, leading to greater confusability. In addition, there may be biasing factors specific to the various studies conducted that have led to slightly worse performance with respiratory sonification. In this paper we work through these possibilities and conclude that some are attributable to experimental design while others may be inevitable. The most important area of investigation in the future is to see whether the results are relevant to monitoring a synthesis of patient state.

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