Abstract

Background: It is well known that oxygen saturation as measured by pulse oximetry (SpO(2)) decreases as altitude increases. However, how SpO(2) changes across childhood, and more specifically during sleep/wake states, at different high altitudes are less well understood. We aimed to perform a systematic review of all studies with direct SpO(2) measurement in healthy children living at high altitude (>2500 meters above sea level) to address these questions.