Establishing the Correlation of End Tidal Carbon Dioxide with Arterial Carbon Dioxide during Cardiopulmonary Bypass

A correlation between end tidal carbon dioxide and arterial PCO2 known to be a non- invasive and
safe procedure in patients undergoing Coronary artery bypass graft. Forty patients were maintained
with normothermia and hypothermia during cardiac surgery in the current study. All patients were
operated with midline sternotomy, aortic bicavalcannulation or aortic-right atrium cannulation for
cardiopulmonary bypass. Arterial Blood Gas measurements (ABG) along with ETCO2 and PaCO2
monitoring were performed. The patient group had undergone a variety of surgical procedures. They
were maintained on CPB with aorta cross clamp. There was no significant difference in ETCO2 and
PaCO2 pressures both at normothermia as well as moderate hypothermia during CPB. Monitoring
ETCO2 reflects accurate measurements of PaCO2. Repeated sampling for ABG therefore can be
avoided as a cheap, non-invasive method to ascertain the health of the patients.