Understanding Capnography Part 1

Michael has been away from the microphone for a bit. Finally over his winter cold he is back at it. This week he discusses the issues he has seen with many of the practices he visits failing to meet the guidelines and standards of their governing body. Hopefully this talk will prompt some listeners to double check and review the training of staff, the documentation items like checklists, log books, narcotic count sheets, etc and do they need to create/overhaul the documentation items. Hopefully they will check... is our emergency equipment, supplies, and medications in good order? Are we following the training requirements: ACLS, PALS, CPR etc?And lastly we are all in this together: sneeze into your elbow, wash your hands, wash your hands..., practice social distancing, and be kind and help each other through this pandemic.

There is strong evidence that the management of serious emergencies in a dental setting is often sub-optimal. This is understandable considering that those who work in dental settings see very few if any dire emergencies. Michael discusses several tragedies where the bar height of providing basic life support CPR was not met and then how we can improve so that if this unfortunate situation ever happens at your practice you can give your patient the best chances for survival. As an advanced life support paramedic and critical care RN with over 30 years experience Michael will give you a very reality based method of managing this panic driven situation. This is not a typical how to use an AED and CPR talk...

In this episode I talk about how to get the most from your operatory monitor in terms of understanding the vital signs and other information that it gives you on a patient during sedation. What parameters are the most important ? How do you tell if a reading is valid or if an alarm is real or false? I promise you will learn some new tricks even if you are an old dog. Join me for this two part discussion. In part two we discuss ECG, heart rate, respiratory rate, and ETCO2

In this episode I talk about how to get the most from your operatory monitor in terms of understanding the vital signs and other information that it gives you on a patient during sedation. What parameters are the most important ? How do you tell if a reading is valid or if an alarm is real or false? I promise you will learn some new tricks even if you are an old dog. Join me for this two part discussion.In part one we discuss BP and oxygen saturation.

In this 2nd episode on capnography Michael discusses the relationship between cellular metabolism, cardiac output and perfusion, and with ventilation in the production, movement ,and exhalation of CO2. He next discusses in more detail the four phases of the chronograph wave and what they mean. Moving on Michael looks at what are common causes fro both increasing and decreasing ETCO2 over time.Lastly Michael explains the uses of capnography in ACLS and the arrested patient.

In his very first podcast Michael discusses the types of capnography, capnography vs. oxygen saturation, what information does it give you, troubleshooting alarms, zero calibration,and other monitor ETCO2 settings.