The effects of high Fresh Gas Flow in treatment of Pediatric Severe Hypercapnia During General Anesthesia: A Case Report

Hypercapnia is a frequent event but severe hypercapnia is a harmful complication of general anesthesia. A 6 month-old Iranian baby boy who had an appendicitis under general anesthesia exhibited severe hypercapnia during surgery. Arterial blood gas revealed a PCO2 of 95mmHg. Troubleshooting immediately were taken, but the level of CO2 did not decline. Under that situation by elevating fresh gas flow to twice or three times, the hypercapnia decreased and by adjusting FGF we could reach the best end tidal PCO2 and paco2. This report will increase our experience about this phenomenon during anesthesia, how we can change the circle circuit of anesthesia machine concordant to decreasing dead space formation and hypercapnia.