rss
Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed 2006;91:F295-F298 doi:10.1136/adc.2005.082008
  • Review

Are carbon dioxide detectors useful in neonates?

  1. E J Molloy1,
  2. K Deakins2
  1. 1Division of Neonatology, National Maternity Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
  2. 2Department of Respiratory Care, Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
  1. Correspondence to:
    Dr Molloy
    National Maternity Hospital, Holles St, Dublin 2, Ireland; elesean{at}hotmail.com
  • Accepted 22 December 2005

Abstract

Maintenance of neonatal normocarbia may prevent chronic lung disease and periventricular leucomalacia, but this requires frequent arterial sampling, which has risks. Alternative methods for measuring CO2 are therefore desirable. These include end tidal CO2, capillary sampling, and transcutaneous measurements. CO2 detectors have also proved effective and rapid indicators of endotracheal intubation. However, this method relies on the presence of exhaled CO2, which may be reduced in certain situations, such as cardiopulmonary arrest. Colorimetric CO2 detectors are therefore valuable adjuncts for airway management, especially during resuscitation, but Paco2 is still the best measure of CO2 in neonatal practice.

Footnotes

  • Competing interests: none declared

This Article

  1. Abstract
  2. Full text
  3. PDF

Responses

  1. Submit a response
  2. No responses published

Register for free content

The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.

Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.