This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on ISI (2)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related article  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Neonatology and Infant Care  • Alert me on articles by topic

Good Technology Misapplied

Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2004;158:594-595.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

In this issue of the ARCHIVES, Schroeder et al¹ show that the hospital stays of 16 of 62 infants with bronchiolitis were prolonged an average of 1.6 days because of a perceived need for supplemental oxygen based on pulse oximetry readings. In an earlier study based on a survey of the practices of 118 pediatric emergency medicine physicians, Mallory et al² suggest that reliance on pulse oximetry might be responsible for the 250% increase in bronchiolitis hospitalization rates seen during the past 20 years. It seems therefore that using pulse oximetry as a fifth vital sign, as it is termed,³ gets more infants with bronchiolitis into hospitals and keeps them there longer. Have the outcomes of infants with bronchiolitis been improved by this practice? Not that anyone can tell. Mortality rates for bronchiolitis have remained relatively constant for the past 2 decades.⁴

It should be mentioned that the utility . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Abraham B. Bergman, MD
Department of Pediatrics
Harborview Medical Center/University of Washington
325 9th Ave (MS 359774)
Seattle, WA 98104
(oscarb@u.washington.edu)

RELATED ARTICLE

Impact of Pulse Oximetry and Oxygen Therapy on Length of Stay in Bronchiolitis Hospitalizations
Alan R. Schroeder, Andrea K. Marmor, Robert H. Pantell, and Thomas B. Newman
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2004;158(6):527-530.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

A Randomized Trial of Home Oxygen Therapy From the Emergency Department for Acute Bronchiolitis: In Reply
Bajaj et al.
Pediatrics 2006;118:1320-1321.
FULL TEXT  

A Randomized Trial of Home Oxygen Therapy From the Emergency Department for Acute Bronchiolitis
Bajaj et al.
Pediatrics 2006;117:633-640.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Role of Pulse Oximetry in Hospital Stays for Infants with Bronchiolitis
JWatch General 2004;2004:4-4.
FULL TEXT