Why monitor end-tidal CO2?
Decades of research and practical experience in medicine have demonstrated that monitoring end-tidal CO2 (“ETCO2”) can mean the difference between life and death. According to the ASA, it is mandatory for all intubated patients undergoing general anesthesia. Leading veterinary anesthesiologists advocate monitoring three things in terms of the physiological function of the patient under anesthesia: circulation, ventilation and oxygenation. Monitoring ETCO2 is the most thorough and comprehensive way to monitor ventilation. In the early 1980s, the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) did a study to determine why 1 in 5,000 of their patients died during routine surgery. They studied thousands of cases post-mortem, and determined that in over 80% of the time, they could have saved the patient had they been monitoring SpO2, ETCO2 or managing temperature better, and in 6 of 7 cases, it was ETCO2 that made the difference. The ASA made it mandatory that every intubated patient under gene
