Unknown Use of End-tidal CO2 in Metabolic Emergencies in Pediatric Patients

Sebastien Redant; Francois Angoulvant; Patrick M Honore; Rachid Attou; Dominique Biarent; David De Bels

doi:10.2478/jtim-2019-0015

Unknown Use of End-tidal CO₂ in Metabolic Emergencies in Pediatric Patients

J Transl Int Med. 2019 Jul 11;7(2):76-78. doi: 10.2478/jtim-2019-0015. eCollection 2019 Jun.

Authors

Sebastien Redant^{1

2}, Francois Angoulvant³, Patrick M Honore², Rachid Attou², Dominique Biarent¹, David De Bels²

Affiliations

¹ Emergency Department, HUDERF University Hospital, ULB University, Brussels, Belgium.
² Department of Intensive Care, Brugmann University Hospital, CHU Brugmann University Hospital, Brussels, Belgium.
³ Pediatric Emergencies, Necker-Enfants Malades University-Paris Public Charity Association Hospital, Paris, France.

Abstract

The authors describe two cases of metabolic acidosis, caused by diabetic ketoacidosis in the first case and by dehydration following gastroenteritis in the second one. Both patients were followed with noninvasive end-tidal CO₂ (ETCO₂) monitoring. A correlation between EtCO₂ and PCO₂ and HCO_3- has been established in the literature. Noninvasive ETCO₂ is used in only 5-6% of metabolic emergencies. In contrast, users described its use as easy and convenient.

Keywords: Noninvasive ETCO2; end-tidal CO2; metabolic emergencies; pediatric patients.