Background Guidelines recommend that brain trauma patients with a Glasgow Coma Scale score <9 should have an airway established. Also, SpO2 >90%, systolic blood pressure >90 mmHg and end-tidal CO2 between 4.5 and 5.3 kPa is advised [1]. The objectives were to investigate guideline adherence, reasons for non-adherence and the incidences of complications related to pre-hospital advanced airway ma...

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is performed frequently by paramedics, emergency department personnel, and inpatient physicians. Unfortunately, after more than 40 years of practice and study, there are still many controversies and unresolved treatment issues. This article focuses on four current controversies in CPR: (1) the role of end-tidal CO2 (ETCO2) detection, (2) the use of bicarbonat...

Monitoring Immediately Before, During, and After Arrest Assessment During CPR At present there are no reliable clinical criteria that clinicians can use to assess the efficacy of CPR. Although end-tidal CO2 serves as an indicator of cardiac output produced by chest compressions and may indicate return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC),1,2 there is little other technology available to provide re...

Increase in lung size has been described in acromegalic patients, but data on respiratory muscle function and control of breathing are relatively scarce. Lung volumes, arterial blood gas tensions, and respiratory muscle strength and activation during chemical stimulation were investigated in a group of 10 patients with acromegaly, and compared with age- and sex-matched normal controls. Inspirat...

Community Health Network prides itself on excellence in clinical care, high standards, continuous drive for improvement, and evidence-based and data-driven practices. Based in Indianapolis, IN, the community healthcare system performs more than 12,600 inpatient surgeries annually. In 2013, Community Health Network noticed a worrisome trend in the data, which showed an increased frequency in int...

Physiological studies on hypercapnic effects carried out on 13 Polaris patrols are summarized. The average CO2 concentrations ranged from 0.7-1% CO2; CO2 was identified as the only environmental contaminant of the submarine atmosphere that has a direct effect on respiration in the concentration range found in the submarine atmosphere. A comparison has been made of physiological effects produced...

A recently developed CO2 pulse technique was used to test for ventilatory sensitivity to CO2 in four normal men following 2 min voluntary hyperventilation down to an end-tidal CO2 tension (PETCO2) of 20 mmHg (2.7 kPa). Pure CO2 was injected into the inspiratory limb of a breathing circuit at 0.4 l.min-1 for 30 s and any small ventilatory response was detected against background noise by ensembl...

Heat-related decreases in cerebral perfusion are partly the result of ventilatory-related reductions in arterial CO2 tension. Cerebral perfusion likely contributes to an individual's tolerance to a challenge like lower body negative pressure (LBNP). Thus increasing cerebral perfusion may prolong LBNP tolerance. This study tested the hypothesis that a hypercapnia-induced increase in cerebral per...