Monitoring carbon dioxide in mechanically ventilated patients during hyperbaric treatment

What Researchers Did

Researchers studied 10 intubated and ventilatory stable patients during hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) to assess the correlation between end-tidal, transcutaneous, and arterial carbon dioxide measurements.

What They Found

A good correlation was observed between end-tidal carbon dioxide (P(ET)CO2) and arterial carbon dioxide (P(a)CO2) (r² = 0.83), with P(ET)CO2 averaging 2.22 kPa higher than P(a)CO2 (LoA ± 2.4 kPa). In contrast, transcutaneous carbon dioxide (P(TC)CO2) showed a poor correlation (r² = 0.24) and was, on average, 2.16 kPa lower than P(a)CO2 (LoA ± 3.2 kPa).

Canadian Relevance

This study has no direct Canadian connection.

Study Limitations

The study was limited by a small sample size of 10 patients and the abstract suggests significant variability in the findings.