REVIEW

Are carbon dioxide detectors useful in neonates?

E J Molloy¹, K Deakins²

¹ Division of Neonatology, National Maternity Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
² Department of Respiratory Care, Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr Molloy
National Maternity Hospital, Holles St, Dublin 2, Ireland; elesean{at}hotmail.com

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.

Abbreviations: PaCO₂, arterial partial pressure of carbon dioxide; ETCO₂, end-tidal CO₂; ETT, endotracheal tube; TcPCO₂, transcutaneous carbon dioxide; ECMO, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation

Keywords: extracorporeal membrane oxygenation; endotracheal intubation; hypocarbia; resuscitation

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

• McVicar, J, Eager, R (2009). Validation study of a transcutaneous carbon dioxide monitor in patients in the emergency department. Emerg. Med. J. 26: 344-346 [Abstract] [Full Text]