Word parts
What it means
Before intubation, the client breathes 100% oxygen, usually for about 3 minutes by a tight-fitting mask, to replace the nitrogen in the lungs with oxygen. This oxygen reserve gives the team more time before the saturation drops while the airway is being placed. Before and between passes of a suction catheter in an artificial airway, the nurse also gives extra oxygen for the same reason.
For the nurse
Watch the oxygen saturation and heart rate before, during and after suctioning or intubation, and stop and reoxygenate if the saturation falls or the heart rate drops.
At a glance
| Also written | preoxygenate, preoxygenated, pre-oxygenation |
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Related terms
oxygen
A gas in the air that every cell needs, also given as a medicine at higher amounts than room air.
oxygenation
The process of getting oxygen into the blood and delivering it to the body's tissues.
endotracheal intubation
Putting a breathing tube through the mouth or nose into the windpipe (trachea).
saturation
How full something is; in nursing, usually the percentage of hemoglobin in the blood that is carrying oxygen.