Latest Recommendations for Monitoring of Non-intubated Patients

White Paper

Identifying patients at risk is critical in anticipating and preventing negative patient outcomes.

Because it’s impossible to know how each patient will respond to sedation or pain medication until it’s administered, even young, healthy patients are at risk of over-sedation and respiratory failure. The growing concern about that risk has prompted an increasing number of medical and health professional organizations to revise their policies and standards on ventilation monitoring.

This white paper addresses the significant changes in guidelines regarding capnography – the continuous monitoring of exhaled CO2 – as the emerging standard of care for ventilation monitoring of non-intubated patients. Download it here.

Recent revisions to policies and standards

• Joint Commission calls for a method to provide advanced warning of respiratory distress.
• American Society of Anesthesiologists recommends that post-anesthesia patients be monitored for ventilation.
• American Society of Anesthesiologists also recommends patients receiving epidural or spinal opioids be monitored for depth of respiration.
• Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation recommends continuous ventilation monitoring.
• UpToDate recommends the use of capnographic monitoring for all patients undergoing procedural sedation.
• American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy recommends capnography over pulse oximetry for early recognition of depressed respiratory activity.
• American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, American College of Gastroenterology, American Gastroenterological Association and American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy recommend capnography for endoscopic procedures using Propofol.
• Emergency Nurses Association recommends use of capnography as a more sensitive indicator of respiratory depression than pulse oximetry.