Effects and applications of permissive hypercapnia during general anesthesia

Abstract

Postoperative pulmonary complications draws anesthetists′ attention as it can be associated with prolonged postoperative hospital stays, increased hospitalization expense, retardeding postoperative recovery and increased hospital mortality. In recent years, lung protective ventilation strategy has been applied during operation under general anesthesia, and current protective lung ventilation strategies generally involve some degree of hypercapnia. Increasing evidences support that hypercapnia is well tolerated and hypercapnia can attenuate the inflammatory response during lung injury, which would assign it a specific role within lung protection strategies during mechanical ventilation. In this paper, we summarize the influence of permissive hypercapnia on the body and the research development in the application of permissive hypercapnia in general anesthesia. Key words: Pulmonary ventilation; Anesthesia, general; Permissive hypercapnia; Review