Patent ID: 8463345

Claim:
A medical device for monitoring oxygen saturation, comprising: a sealed housing comprising a first opening and a second opening; a light emitting portion comprising a first lens sealed in the first opening of the housing, the light emitting portion emitting light at a plurality of wavelengths including at least four spaced apart wavelengths through the lens into a volume of a patient's body tissue adjacent to the lens; a light detecting portion comprising a second lens sealed in the second opening of the housing, the light detecting portion generating an electrical output signal corresponding to light incident on the light detecting portion, the incident light comprising light emitted by the emitting portion, scattered by the body tissue volume, and passing through the second lens; a control module coupled to the light emitting portion to provide control signals controlling the light emitted by the light emitting portion; and a monitoring module coupled to the light detecting portion to receive the output signal and to compute a volume-independent measure of oxygen saturation in the volume of tissue in response to the output signal, wherein each of the light emitting portion and the light detecting portion comprise a light source for emitting light and a light detector for detecting light and the functionality of the light emitting portion and the light detecting portion as one of emitting and detecting can be selectively switched.