The need for clinicians to actively monitor for respiratory compromise following general anesthesia and procedural sedation with both pulse oximetry and capnography is highlighted by two new studies released by medical device company Medtronic.
The first study validates the clinical utility of the Integrated Pulmonary Index (IPI) in the post anesthesia care unit (PACU) to identify respiratory adverse events (RAE) and the second is a study on the cost-effectiveness of capnography in gastrointestinal (GI) sedation.
The findings were presented at the Anesthesiology 2015 annual meeting in San Diego.
Respiratory failure is the second-most frequently occurring preventable safety adverse event, causing higher mortality rates, longer hospital and intensive care unit stays, and billions of additional healthcare dollars spent each year.
It is rapidly becoming the third most costly hospital inpatient expense in the US. Respiratory compromise, which consists of respiratory insufficiency, failure and arrest, dramatically increases the likelihood of adverse outcomes and cost of patient care. Currently, 13 million patients use patient-controlled analgesia each year and up to 678,000 of these patients experience life-threatening, opioid-induced respiratory depression.
"The findings presented today demonstrate the clinical benefits and potential cost savings capnography can provide across a broad spectrum of patients," said Dr Michael Tarnoff, vice president and chief medical officer, Minimally Invasive Therapies Group at Medtronic. "These studies underscore Medtronic's commitment to reducing the growing burden of respiratory compromise across clinical settings to improve the health and care of patients."
Medtronic, IPI, Respiratory Compromise, US, Anesthesiology 2015 annual meeting
