Prevalence of Hypoxaemia in Paediatric Patients Attending Children Out Patient Clinic

Abstract

Background;In more developed countries, it is a common practice to use pulse oximetry for the diagnosis of hypoxaemia, regrettably, it is not so in resource limited environments like ours especially in outpatient settings while carrying out emergency triage assessment. Aim; The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of undictated hypoxaemia among children presenting to the children outpatient clinic of the department of paediatrics at the University of Port Harcourt teaching hospital. Methods; This descriptive cross-sectional study of the prevalence of hypoxemia was conducted at the children outpatient clinic of the department of paediatrics at the University of Port Harcourt teaching hospital. The room air oxygen saturations of paediatric outpatients were measured at rest from May, 2019 to September, 2019 using digital pulse oximetry. Hypoxaemia was defined as SpO2 less than 90% in room air at rest. Results; A total of 351 children were recruited for the study of which 201 (57.3%) were males and 150 (42.7%) were females giving a Male: Female ratio of 1.34:1, 233(66.38%) were under-fives. Prevalence of hypoxaemia was 40(11.4%). Acute respiratory infection (ARI) was the commonest condition presenting to the children outpatient clinic in 119(33.9%) and it was also the condition with the highest prevalence of hypoxia 11 (27.5%) of all the cases with hypoxia followed by malaria 4(10%) and diarrhoea 4(10%)Oximetry finding enabled patient to be seen faster ( accelerating triaging) and sent to the children emergency room for oxygen therapy amidst other treatments. In conclusions, there is a high prevalence of hypoxemia among children presenting at the outpatient clinic of the department of paediatrics at the University of Port Harcourt teaching hospital. There should be routine screening for hypoxaemia during emergency triage and assessment by the outpatient clinic nurses. Pulse oximeter should be made available to the outpatient clinic nurses by the hospital to enable them routinely screen for hypoxaemia and prioritize the patients with hypoxaemia among patients to be quickly seen by paediatricians and oxygen therapy commenced to reduce morbidity and mortality from hypoxaemia.