Gases administered in artifical respiration : with particular reference to the use of carbon dioxide a report to the Medical Research Council ... / written by K.W. Donald and W.D.M. Paton.

  • Donald, K. W. (Kenneth William)
Date:
[1955?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Gases administered in artifical respiration : with particular reference to the use of carbon dioxide a report to the Medical Research Council ... / written by K.W. Donald and W.D.M. Paton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    monoxide elimination with added carbon dioxide re¬ ported by Henderson and Haggard, and continued to support the use of pure oxygen only. Nevertheless, mixtures containing carbon dioxide were adopted almost universally for use in resuscitation. Since this time evidence has accumulated against the use of carbon dioxide for this purpose, and recently the Medical Research Council Committee for Research on Breathing Apparatus for Protection against Dangerous Fumes and Gases recommended (unpublished memorandum) that, in first-aid practice, pure oxygen and not oxygen and carbon dioxide tcar- bogen) be administered to persons suffering from respiratory failure or respiratory depression and requiring manual artificial respiration. This recom¬ mendation was stated in simple terms, and it is now considered desirable that the reasons for abandoning “ carbogen ” should be given in greater detail. It is to be emphasized that the recommendation applies only to the resuscitation of subjects suffering from respiratory depression or failure and requiring immediate manual artificial respiration. The urgent decision on whether artificial respiration is required may be very difficult. It is often hard to assess the degree of respiratory failure by looking at the movements of the chest or the colour of the patient. First-aid workers rightly err on the side of safety, and artificial respiration may be given to patients who are not in respiratory failure. Causes of Respiratory Failure The various types of respiratory failure seen by first-aid workers are as follows : 1. There are those persons who have become unable to ventilate their lungs because of drowning, asphyxiation, or strangulation and are suffering from severe oxygen lack and carbon dioxide retention. 2. There are those subjects who have been breathing an atmo¬ sphere deficient in oxygen and who have been able to increase their ventilation in response to increasing anoxaemia, thus wash¬ ing out a considerable amount of carbon dioxide. However, in any dangerous atmosphere, anoxia will subsequently cause centra] respiratory depression, and these subjects will ultimately suffer from reduced ventilation and carbon dioxide retention. 3. There are those patients who have been able to ventilate their lungs freely with air but are rendered anoxaemic by the combination of haemoglobin with carbon monoxide, with result¬ ant interference with oxygen transport. Animal experiments show that so long as the impaired oxygen transport has not caused