Metabolism and physiological effects of carbon dioxide. Implications in anaesthetic management

Abstract

Background: Carbon dioxide is a normal by-product of aerobic metabolism that maintains the equilibrium of respiratory act, being eliminated from the lungs. Despite of an increasing number of researches concerning carbon dioxide metabolism and its effects on human homeostasis, there are still discussions about carbon dioxide metabolism, physiology and its implication in anaesthetic management, ICU, critically ill patient. The use of mild to moderate hypercapnia during general anaesthesia and in mechanically ventilated patients is growing, based on scientifical researches of last years. Material and methods: There has been scientifically evaluated data from PubMed, 2002-2017. Key words used in search are: “carbon dioxide”, “ventilation”, “metabolism”, “gas change”. There were selected articles, taking in consideration their title, and chosen abstracts. The article contains a qualitative analysis and synthesis of the recommendation, concerning anaesthetic management and metabolism of carbon dioxide. Conclusions: Carbon dioxide metabolism and its anaesthetic management, represents a challenge that will be actual for many years in future. The amount of controversial studies about effects of carbon dioxide on patients under general anaesthesia or mechanical ventilation, determined us to perform a review of literature, and evaluate it. There are known facts about carbon dioxide metabolism, such as normal values, how it is produced in human body, how it is evacuated, effects on cardiovascular, nervous systems, and still there are many controversial studies on that topic, that determine to study it more and find new research results.