Description:
One of the primary goals of emergency medicine is to insure our patients are adequately oxygenated and ventilated.  Clinical assessment of the patient occurs from the moment we access the patient, however all providers have access to several tools that can help refine that assessment, monitor the patient more closely, and provide an early indication of the need to intervene.  However this technology is not without pitfall, and the knowledgable provider needs to understand how the technology reflects the patient’s physiology.  In this interactive session, we will review respiratory physiology and examine three technologies that are used to objectively assess the patient’s oxygenation and ventilation.

Objectives:

1. Understand respiratory physiology a it applies to oxygenation and ventilation.
2. Understand the technology used to monitor oxygenation and ventilation using pulse oximetry, capnography, and co-oximetry.
3. Understand the pitfalls of oximetry, capnography, and co-oximetry.