title: Expired CO₂ measurement in intubated or spontaneously breathing patients from the emergency department.
abstract: Carbon dioxide (CO₂) along with oxygen (O₂) share the role of being the most important gases in the human body. The measuring of expired CO₂ at the mouth has solicited growing clinical interest among physicians in the emergency department for various indications: (1) surveillance et monitoring of the intubated patient; (2) verification of the correct positioning of an endotracheal tube; (3) monitoring of a patient in cardiac arrest; (4) achieving normocapnia in intubated head trauma patients; (5) monitoring ventilation during procedural sedation. The video allows physicians to familiarize themselves with the use of capnography and the text offers a review of the theory and principals involved. In particular, the importance of CO₂ for the organism, the relevance of measuring expired CO₂, the differences between arterial and expired CO₂, the material used in capnography with their artifacts and traps, will be reviewed. Since the main reluctance in the use of expired CO₂ measurement is due to lack of correct knowledge concerning the physiopathology of CO₂ by the physician, we hope that this explanation and the video sequences accompanying will help resolve this limitation.
authors.affiliation: Acute Medicine Department Accidents and Emergency Unit, Universit Catholique de Louvain Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc. Franck.verschuren@uclouvain.be
authors.forename: Franck
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Verschuren
authors.forename: Maidei Gugu
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Kabayadondo
authors.forename: Frédéric
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Thys
mesh_terms: D019296:Capnography / Q000379:methods*; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism; D004635:Emergency Medicine / Q000193:education / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007442:Intubation, Intratracheal / Q000379:methods*; D010313:Partial Pressure
chemical_list: D002245:Carbon Dioxide