Monitoring a patient’s carbon dioxide output is the best way to judge their oxygen intake. That’s where capnography monitors come in.
Capnography monitors are one of the many monitoring tools used every day in healthcare. More specifically, it monitors the respiratory system.
But how exactly do they work, and what’s the importance of monitoring carbon dioxide levels?
Role of Capnography Monitors
Capnography is standard for intubated patients. It’s also suggested for use with all major medical patients.
It’s well known for its ease of use and usefulness for monitoring patients.
The medical equipment works off the property that carbon dioxide absorbs infrared radiation. A monitor passes infrared light over a sample of gas on a sensor and measures the levels of CO2.
Higher CO2 levels show low infrared levels, while low CO2 levels show high amounts of light. The results are then adjusted for nitrous oxide, which can also absorb infrared light.
Newer capnography monitors can also measure vital signs such as blood pressure and blood oxygen levels.
Respiratory Effort
One benefit of using capnography monitors is that they can provide clues about a person’s respiratory effort. As a patient’s respiratory rate increases, so does the production of CO2 and vice versa.
Waveform capnography can help monitor if the brain isn’t responding appropriately to CO2 changes. If their breathing increases but the produced CO2 doesn’t, then it could be accumulating in their lungs.
Although reading these waveforms can be easy, it takes care to know what the readings are indicative of.
Diagnosis
In addition to reading changes in respiratory effort, capnography monitors can also help you diagnose the source of the problem. A number of conditions can cause these issues, such as asthma or bronchitis, but they may present themselves similarly. Respiratory issues may present themselves differently on a capnography waveform.
For bronchospasms, the air is trapped and inconsistently released. This causes an initial spike on the waveform that becomes more pronounced the worse the condition is. If the waveform does not have that spike, there is no bronchospasm present.
Real-Time Feedback
Capnography improves patient monitoring by providing real-time feedback for ongoing treatments.
When a patient has positive pressure ventilation with a valve mask, it can difficult to track how often the bag is squeezed and how much air the patient is actually getting. Capnography provides a waveform after each squeeze when air reaches the lungs.
It also helps you figure out how fast to ventilate a patient by monitoring how much carbon dioxide is given back in turn. Too much oxygen and you could cause hyperoxia.
Importance of Monitoring
Capnography monitors are but one of the many patient monitoring tools available to medical practitioners. While some can provide multiple vital sign readings, they can’t cover them all.
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