In 97 adult patients, the arterial blood gases were measured immediately before and after endotracheal intubation, and the changes in blood gases during the period of apnea were studied.
According to the inspired oxygen fractions (F
IO
2) with which patients were ventilated for 3 minutes prior to commencing the intubation. patients were randomly devided into four groups; in G1 group, F
IO
2 was 1.0, and G2, 0.66, G3, 0.5, and G4, 0.33 respectively. The results are as follows;
1, PaO
2 decreased significantly (p<0.05) after intubation in all groups. Especially the decrease observed in G4 was highly significant (p<0.005) and a minimum level of PaO
2 was 68.5 torr in G4 group.
2, It is interesting that PaO
2 sligtly increased after intubation in several cases of each group, of which mechanism remains to be studied.
3, PaCO
2 increased significantly after intubation, and there was significant correlation between the increase in PaCO
2 and the intubation time in G1 and G3 group.
4, PH decreased without significant change in base excess.
We conclude that when using 0.5 or greater than that of F
IO
2 for controled ventilation prior to tracheal intubation, no clinically serious hypoxemia may occur.
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