tions in patient care,
not necessarily to wait
until an alarm sounds
before I take action.
That's the point of
using the monitors —
they alert you to slight
changes in a patient's
condition long before
the situation turns crit-
ical.
Before pulse oxime-
try and capnography
were available,
providers relied on
skin coloration, auscultation, manual pulse and blood pressure read-
ings to assess vital signs. Oxygenation and ventilation were assessed
less objectively in previous generations. Thankfully we've come a long
way since then. I believe capnography and pulse oximetry are among
the most important monitoring developments of the past 30 years and
essential technologies to have in your ORs. But we can still learn from
providers of the past who knew that awareness and vigilance are
anesthesia's most important tools. Without them, even the most
informative patient monitors are useless.
OSM
J U L Y 2 0 1 8 • O U T PA T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T • 3 7
• WARNING SIGNS Using capnography to detect slight changes in respiratory rates
can prevent respiratory arrest, cardiac arrest, hypoxic brain injury and even death.
Dr. Warren (jason.warren@kp.org) is an anesthesiologist affiliated with Kaiser
Permanente in San Diego, Calif.
