Why would there be low 02 saturation levels for someone with fractured ribs and a ruptured spleen?

Pneumothorax or pain: Ruptured spleen and fractured ribs can cause a low oxygen saturation in many ways. If the patient is bleeding to death from a ruptured spleen, sats can go down. If the broken ribs cause a pneumothorax, sats will go down. If the patient is having a lot of pain and not taking deep breaths, sats can go down. If the patient has pulmonary contusion along with rib fractures sats will go down.

Get evaluated: Taking a deep breath, moving the broken ribs, is painful, which can cause shallow breathing and low o2 sats. However, pulmonary embolism, contusion, effusion, pneumothorax, and infiltrate are other possible causes, seen with trauma. You should be monitored, cxr, nasal oxygen, and possible ct angio to evaluate for causes. Okay to ask about clot prevention.

Pulmonary Contusion: Ofen this may be due to underlying pulmonary contusions that result in shunting. Overtime, hypoventilation may also contribute because these patients often will not breathe deeply due to pain. Finally, if the splenic injury is severe, blood loss and hypovolemic shock can cause hypoxia.