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. 2020 Oct;22(4):85-86.
doi: 10.37757/MR2020.V22.N4.9.

Silent or 'Happy' Hypoxemia: An Urgent Dilemma for COVID-19 Patient Care

Calixto Machado-Curbelo
Free article

Silent or 'Happy' Hypoxemia: An Urgent Dilemma for COVID-19 Patient Care

Calixto Machado-Curbelo. MEDICC Rev. 2020 Oct.
Free article

Abstract

A perplexing clinical aspect of COVID-19 is presentation of patients with pronounced hypoxemia without expected signs of respiratory distress or dyspnea, even when cyanotic. Nonetheless, these patients frequently leapfrog clinical evolution stages and suffer acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), with concomitant cardiorespiratory arrest and death.[1] This phenomenon is referred to as silent or 'happy' hypoxemia.

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