Capnography Monitoring Solution Increases Patient Safety

A new capnography solution offers enhanced features that could help clinicians identify and address serious respiratory care threats sooner.

The Capnostream 20p bedside monitor features the proprietary Apnea-Sat Alert algorithm, an algorithm that measures and reports recurring apnea and oxygen desaturation events, displaying the values directly on the Capnostream 20p monitor screen without requiring additional equipment or clinical workflow changes. Apnea-Sat Alert technology is also part of the broader family of Smart Alarm Management integrated algorithms that help to mitigate alarm fatigue, including Smart Breath Detection, a filter and pattern recognition algorithm that screens out low-amplitude “non-breath” etCO2 excursions like snoring, talking or crying, to provide a more accurate respiratory rate.


Other integrated algorithms include Smart Alarm for Respiratory Analysis (SARA), an alarm management technology that helps prevent alarm fatigue by reducing clinically insignificant respiratory alarms; Nellcor SatSeconds, a technology that helps analyze oxygen desaturation events; and the Integrated Pulmonary Index (IPI) algorithm that combines four respiratory measurements—capnography, respiratory rate, pulse rate, and pulse oximetry—to provide clinicians with an integrated snapshot of respiratory status.

The Capnostream 20p bedside monitor also includes the Microstream-enabled microMediCO2 module measurement bench, a module that offers easy integration into host monitor configurations, and is designed to support future Smart Capnography algorithms without requiring hardware upgrades. The Capnostream 20p bedside monitor is a product of Covidien (Dublin, Ireland), and has been approved by the US Food and drug Administration (FDA).

“Studies show that as many as 88% of hospitalized patients may be at risk for recurrent apneas, yet we’re only identifying and treating a very small number,” said Scott Kelley, MD, chief medical officer of respiratory and monitoring solutions at Covidien. “The Capnostream 20p bedside monitor will help increase apnea detection rates and represents an important advancement in continuous patient monitoring that we believe will help save lives.”

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