A study published in The American Journal of Gastroenterology found among patients undergoing routine endoscopy or colonoscopy with moderate sedation, capnographic monitoring did not reduce the incidence of hypoxemia.
John J. Vargo, MD, chairman of the gastroenterology and hepatology department at Cleveland Clinic, and colleagues performed a randomized, parallel group trial involving 452 healthy patients who were scheduled for routine endoscopy or colonoscopy with moderate sedation.
Here are three points:
1. Dr. Vargo and his colleagues found there was no difference in the incidence of hypoxemia with or without capnography for both the upper endoscopy and colonoscopy arms of the trial.
2. Hypoxemia rates were 54.1 percent and 49.5 percent in the blinded and open capnography EGD groups, respectively.
3. The hypoxemia rates for the blinded and open capnography colonoscopy groups were 53.8 percent and 52.1 percent, respectively.