Trends but not individual values of central venous oxygen saturation agree with mixed venous oxygen saturation during varying hemodynamic conditions.

Background: Previous studies found contradictory results regarding the question whether mixed venous oxygen saturation (Svo2) and central venous oxygen saturation (Scvo2) are equivalent. The inconsistency of study results may result from different study designs and different, partly questionable, statistical approaches.

Methods: The authors performed a prospective clinical trial comparing individual oxygen saturation values as well as the trend of values in blood from the superior vena cava (Scvo2), the right atrium (Srao2), and the pulmonary artery (Svo2) during varying hemodynamic situations.