Role of Capnograghy during weaning from mechanical ventilation in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Abstract

During spontaneous breath trial (SBT) for COPD patients, monitoring of PaCO2 level may be required to assure adequate ventilation before the decision of extubation. An arterial blood gas (ABG) provides important information during weaning process. However, obtaining an ABG may be extremely difficult and painful in some patients and it may cause serious complications such as arterial injury. The aim of this study is to compare end tidal CO2 as a less invasive and accurate surrogate to arterial CO2 during spontaneous breath trial (SBT) of mechanically ventilated COPD patients as a weaning method from mechanical ventilation. This study was conducted on 50 of mechanically ventilated COPD patients at the Respiratory Intensive Care Unit of Abbassia Chest Hospital. In this study, 78% of the patients were males and 22% were females. The mean of age was 62.54 years. The special habits detected among the studied cases were tobacco smoking. The most common co-morbidities associated with COPD in the studied cases were diabetes (8%), hypertension (16%), ischemic heart disease (12%), chronic liver disease (8%).