EtCO2 Monitoring in Acute Self-poisoning

There is no consensus on monitoring criteria in acute self poisoning. Clinical scores, vital signs or lactatemia have failed to prove good predictive value. The main acute self poisoning complication is decreased consciousness level with consequent increased risk of hypoxemia and aspiration pneumonitis. Several clinical studies have recently shown that EtCO2 monitoring can be valuable in procedural sedation in the emergency department. It is able to predict hypoxemia before any SaO2 decrease and any complications related to these procedures. We therefore hypothesized that EtCO2 could help in acute self poisoning patients' monitoring in the ED.