Essential Uses of Capnography in Emergency Medicine

Capnography serves several crucial roles in emergency medicine, particularly in confirming endotracheal tube placement, monitoring cardiac arrest situations, and ensuring patient safety during procedural sedation. For endotracheal tube placement, both qualitative and quantitative measures of end-tidal CO2 provide nearly 100% sensitivity, making them reliable methods for confirming tube placement in the trachea. In the context of cardiac arrest, quantitative waveform capnography is utilized to monitor chest compressions and assess for return of spontaneous circulation, with values over 20 mmHg indicating effective compressions. Procedural sedation benefits from capnography as it can detect hypoventilation more promptly than pulse oximetry, enhancing monitoring in settings with limited resources or personnel, thereby improving patient safety during sedation procedures.