Happy hypoxia or Silent Hypoxia
- August 4, 2020
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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Subject: Science and Tech
Context:
Experts have been seeing multiple cases of “happy hypoxia” or “silent hypoxia” amongst 30-40 per cent of patients.
What is happy hypoxia/ silent hypoxia?
- The silent hypoxia is a condition when the peripheral oxygen saturation remains good, but the partial pressure of oxygen is very low that shows up in the arterial blood gas (ABG) tests. But patients do not feel any symptoms of low oxygen, as they feel fine, healthy and keep talking.
- Suddenly, their condition deteriorates, leading to their death.
- Hypoxemia is defined as “a decrease in the partial pressure of oxygen in the blood.” As blood oxygen levels begin to reduce, a person may experience shortness of breath, also called dyspnea. If blood oxygen levels continue to fall, the organs may shut down, and the issue becomes life threatening.
- COVID-19 is primarily a respiratory illness, and a severe case can reduce the amount of oxygen that the lungs can absorb.
- Blood oxygen levels have been found to be very low in some COVID-19 patients.