The Importance of PAO2 in Critical Care

The main point that this Twitter was making is that PAO2 is essential for critical care. In most circumstances, the difference between arterial and venous blood is so small that you could absolutely make do with venous gases. There are scenarios clinically where you might need to have an arterial guess because you're trying to assess the arterial venous difference in some parameters like CO2. If you're looking at the venous veno arterial, CO2 difference,. Those are scenarios where you'd need an ABG, but realistically, under most circumstances, it's not necessary.