Edwards Lifesciences Corporation
METHOD FOR SPECTROPHOTOMETRIC BLOOD OXYGENATION MONITORING OF ORGANS IN THE BODY

Abstract:

A method and apparatus for non-invasively determining a blood oxygen saturation level within tissue of an internal organ is provided. The method includes: applying a near infrared spectrophotometric sensor on an external surface of an organ; operating the sensor to emit light from a light source directly into the tissue of the organ at a first tissue location, and to sense the emitted light at a second tissue location, which emitted light has traveled through the tissue between the first and second tissue locations, and to produce signals representative of the intensity of the sensed emitted light; using a processor to execute instructions, which instructions cause the processor to: determine an attenuation value of the emitted light for each wavelength, and determine a blood oxygen saturation level of the organ tissue using the determined attenuation values for each of the plurality of wavelengths.