Study of the Effect of Increase in The Rate of Respiration on PaCo2 in the Anesthetized Children

SUMMERY A controlled double -blind clinical trial was performed in 40 normal children, with no underlying pulmonary pathology, who underwent surgery. The objective was to study the effect of increase in the rate of respiration (RR) on PaCo2 in the anesthetized child . The RR of the control group (n=20) RR was set at 40/min. In the study patients (n=20) RR was set at 40/min. For the first 30 min. & then increased to 80/min, for the next 30 minutes. PaCo2 measurements were done at 30 & 60 minutes in both groups. There was no difference in anesthetic drugs in the two groups. There was no change in the PaCo2 in the two readings in the group; in the study group the PaCo2 increased from 28.6±3.1 at 30 min. to 34.2±3.3 at 60 min. As assessed by the paired t test this change was significant (P<0.001). The study demonstrated that in the anesthetic T-piece system increasing the rate of respiration not only does not cause a fall in the PaCo2, but results in a significant rise in the PaCo2, however it Joes not exceed the normal value.