Oxygen Controller Assists Newborns Needing Mechanical Ventilation

A new automatic oxygen controller provides accurate and reliable oxygen saturation (SpO2) measurements, even under challenging clinical conditions.

The Closed Loop Controller of Inspired Oxygen (CLiO2) system noninvasively and continuously measures the oxygen level in a newborn's blood using the well known Masimo SET measure-through motion and low perfusion pulse oximetry technology. The CLiO2 system processes blood oxygen saturation levels by a computer algorithm that then anticipates trends, and modifies the amount of oxygen delivered. If necessary, adjustments can be made on a second to second basis, an accuracy level not currently possible with manual control. The CLiO2 is a product of CareFusion (San Diego, CA, USA), and is currently available in most Western European and Asian countries.

"If oxygen levels become either too high or too low for premature babies on ventilation they are at risk for serious complications such as permanent eye or chronic lung damage,” said Steven Donn, M.D., a professor of pediatrics in the division of neonatal-perinatal medicine at the University of Michigan Health System (Ann Arbor, USA). "I have been very impressed with how much more stable oxygen levels become with the CLiO2 system compared to what we've used in the past.”

"We built the CLiO2 system to address a worldwide medical need to improve the way newborns are cared for in hospitals,” said David Schlotterbeck, chairman and CEO of CareFusion. "We hope this system will help reduce complications associated with newborns needing mechanical ventilation and can free up time for clinicians to better care for some of their most vulnerable patients.”

Conventional pulse oximetry assumes that arterial blood is the only blood pulsating in the measurement site. However, during patient motion, the venous blood also moves, which causes conventional pulse oximetry to under-read because it cannot distinguish between the arterial and venous blood. The Masimo (Irvine, CA, USA) SET signal processing identifies the venous blood signal, isolates it, and using adaptive filters, cancels the noise and extracts the arterial signal. It then reports the true arterial oxygen saturation and pulse rate. More than 100 independent and objective peer-reviewed clinical studies document the significantly superior performance of Masimo SET Pulse Oximetry.

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