Failure to tracheally intubate and ventilate the lungs is a major cause of anesthesia morbidity. Expired carbon dioxide monitoring has become a standard for assessing correct endotracheal tube placement. We present a case of failure to detect expired carbon dioxide after successful intubation resulting from a one-way valve obstruction of the endotracheal tube.
Department of Anesthesiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, USA. haz1859@med.unc.edu
Anesth. Analg. 2001 Oct 1; 93 (4): 971-2, table of contents.
ImplicationsFailure to tracheally intubate and ventilate the lungs is a major cause of anesthesia morbidity. Expired carbon dioxide monitoring has become a standard for assessing correct endotracheal tube placement. We present a case of failure to detect expired carbon dioxide after successful intubation resulting from a one-way valve obstruction of the endotracheal tube.