Predictive Value of Hypoxemia in the Diagnosis of Pneumonia in the Pediatric Population

Pneumonia is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in children less than 5 years of age1. According to a systematic review, hypoxaemia as detected with pulse oximetry has been observed in 13% of children with WHO-defined pneumonia requiring hospitalisation (severe and very severe classifications). This corresponds to at least 1.5 to 2.7 million annual cases of hypoxaemic pneumonia presenting to health-care facilities2. This study was aimed to identify the clinical predictive values of hypoxemia in children with radiographic evidence of Pneumonia. A retrospective cohort study was conducted at Dr. Soliman Fakeeh Hospital. The aim of the study was to seek an association between pulse oxygen saturation and radiographic pneumonia in the pediatric age group. Data was collected and analyzed in IBM SPSS Version 20. The results were significant for hypoxemia across all age groups, [x² (1, N=755) = 10.327, p = .001]. Approximately 94% of patients with hypoxemia had pneumonia. Due to its statistical significance, evaluation of oxygen saturation for hypoxemia may be useful in the assessment of pneumonia risk among children in settings with underprivileged resources.