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clinical skills
technology
patient monitoring

Capnography: monitoring CO2

02 April 2018
Features
02 April 2018
Volume 10 · Issue 4

Abstract

In each issue, the paramedic education team at Edge Hill University focuses on the clinical skills carried out by paramedics on the frontlines, highlighting the importance of these skills and how to perform them. In this issue, Rob Deighton discusses the uses of capnography as a non-invasive and inexpensive rapid assessment tool.

Capnography is the measurement of the levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air after a person has exhaled. The level of CO2 normally found in air is so small, it is almost zero. When a person breathes out, CO2 levels rise and a measurement is taken, providing information about CO2 levels within the body.

The level of CO2 found in exhaled air provides the paramedic with important information about the physiological state of the person whose levels are measured. Capnography can provide valuable information about endotracheal tube (ETT) placement, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), breathing efficacy and respiratory rate.

The content of the air we breathe is a mixture of gases, with each gas exerting a pressure dependent on its proportional size. This is called its partial pressure and is abbreviated as the letter ‘P’, e.g. PO2—partial pressure of oxygen. The total of the gas pressures gives an atmospheric pressure measured in millimetres of mercury (mmHg). At sea level, atmospheric air would be around 760 mmHg with the PO2 around 159 mmHg or 20.8% of the total gases (Tortora and Derrickson, 2014).

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