Evaluating blood oxygen saturation measurements by popular fitness trackers in postoperative patients: A prospective clinical trial
Philipp Helmer,
Philipp Rodemers,
Sebastian Hottenrott,
Robert Leppich,
Maja Helwich,
Rüdiger Pryss,
Peter Kranke,
Patrick Meybohm,
Bernd E. Winkler,
Michael Sammeth
Affiliations
Philipp Helmer
Department of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care, Emergency and Pain Medicine, University Hospital Würzburg, Oberdürrbacher Str. 6, 97080 Würzburg, Germany; Corresponding author
Philipp Rodemers
Department of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care, Emergency and Pain Medicine, University Hospital Würzburg, Oberdürrbacher Str. 6, 97080 Würzburg, Germany
Sebastian Hottenrott
Department of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care, Emergency and Pain Medicine, University Hospital Würzburg, Oberdürrbacher Str. 6, 97080 Würzburg, Germany
Robert Leppich
Department of Software Engineering, Faculty of Computer Science, University Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg, Germany
Maja Helwich
Department of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care, Emergency and Pain Medicine, University Hospital Würzburg, Oberdürrbacher Str. 6, 97080 Würzburg, Germany
Rüdiger Pryss
Institute for Clinical Epidemiology and Biometry, University Würzburg, Josef-Schneider-Str. 2, 97080 Würzburg, Germany
Peter Kranke
Department of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care, Emergency and Pain Medicine, University Hospital Würzburg, Oberdürrbacher Str. 6, 97080 Würzburg, Germany
Patrick Meybohm
Department of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care, Emergency and Pain Medicine, University Hospital Würzburg, Oberdürrbacher Str. 6, 97080 Würzburg, Germany
Bernd E. Winkler
Department of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care, Emergency and Pain Medicine, University Hospital Würzburg, Oberdürrbacher Str. 6, 97080 Würzburg, Germany
Michael Sammeth
Department of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care, Emergency and Pain Medicine, University Hospital Würzburg, Oberdürrbacher Str. 6, 97080 Würzburg, Germany; Department of Applied Sciences and Health, Coburg University, Friedrich-Streib-Str. 2, 96450 Coburg, Germany
Summary: Blood oxygen saturation is an important clinical parameter, especially in postoperative hospitalized patients, monitored in clinical practice by arterial blood gas (ABG) and/or pulse oximetry that both are not suitable for a long-term continuous monitoring of patients during the entire hospital stay, or beyond. Technological advances developed recently for consumer-grade fitness trackers could—at least in theory—help to fill in this gap, but benchmarks on the applicability and accuracy of these technologies in hospitalized patients are currently lacking. We therefore conducted at the postanaesthesia care unit under controlled settings a prospective clinical trial with 201 patients, comparing in total >1,000 oxygen blood saturation measurements by fitness trackers of three brands with the ABG gold standard and with pulse oximetry. Our results suggest that, despite of an overall still tolerable measuring accuracy, comparatively high dropout rates severely limit the possibilities of employing fitness trackers, particularly during the immediate postoperative period of hospitalized patients.
