The Importance of pH in O2 Treatment

SAO2 is the product of PAO2 and pH. Yet pH is tightly regulated, not in relation to O2. So it can't be the true goal of O2 treatment. I don't think PAO2 helps you here either. If you don't understand what acidosis or alkalosis does to the patient's oxygen delivery in either direction, then the ABG doesn't help you for that. That would give you a really clear visual representation that things are terrible. And I'd prefer that as opposed to having the machine automatically set up the waveform to look pretty for you. Yep. The PAO2 gets burned through almost instantaneously. It's the saturation