The Accuracy of Non-invasive Continuous Carbon Dioxide Monitoring by the Sentec V-Sign Digital Monitor System

Measurement of SO2 is used in nearly every patient receiving anesthesia or sedation, whereas monitoring of pCO2 is important in patients during and shortly after major surgery and in critically ill patients. But measurement of pCO2 requires arterial blood sampling and laboratory testing. Non-invasive monitors for continuous assessment of arterial pCO2 have been developed but their accuracy and feasibility were insufficient to make them useful in the clinical setting. Recently, a new digital system for continuous and non-invasive monitoring of arterial pCO2 and SO2 has been introduced (SenTec Digital Monitor System, SenTec AG, Therwil, Switzerland). This present study has been designed to evaluate the accuracy of the SenTec V-SignTM monitoring system for measuring pCO2 in comparison with repeated arterial blood gas testing in the operation room and in the intensive care unit.