Abstract
THE USE OF procedural sedation is growing dramatically because of the increase in performance of minimally invasive procedures in nonacute and acute care settings. As anesthesia agents have been refined to provide short-acting sedation with minimal side effects, procedural sedation is becoming increasingly desirable. Procedural sedation is not only commonly used in the operating room, but has many other applications such as endoscopy, radiology, cardiology, dentistry, physicians’ offices, and pediatrics. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) defined 4 levels of sedation and anesthesia in January 2001. These defined levels made clear that because sedation-to-anesthesia is a continuum, sedation patients should be monitored and treated the same as general anesthesia patients. Capnography is the continuous measurement and display of carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration in exhaled breath. A capnogram is the graphical waveform depicting CO2 concentration throughout respiration (Table 1). A normal capnogram has a near zero baseline with a sharp rapid rise, a plateau, then a sharp rapid down shift (Fig 1). Abnormal capnograms occur for a multitude of reasons and present with varying changes from the normal (Fig 2). Table 1. Capnography Waveforms: Interpreting the Capnogram
Published Version
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