The Effects of Cardiac Arrest on Arterial Carbon Dioxide Levels

The first recorded arterial carbon dioxide tension for the groups was 52 millimetres of mercury on arrival to hospital. Close to 9,000 arterial blood guess measurements were taken on these 1,700 patients in their first 24 hours of care by our protocol. The average time from cardiac arrest to return of spontaneous circulation was 25 minutes and the average time from heart attack to randomisation was 153 minutes. As expected, there were fewer arterial blood guesses that met target range in the mild hypercapnia group.