Are you like me? Having trouble understanding arterial blood gases? I'm still learning but while surfing for more info felt, shucks, it'd be the neighborly thing to do to post what I find. Here is a site I found that might help...Going to review it now. http://www.ed4nurses.com/abgcs.htmHere's one my instructor found:http://www.nurse-center.com/studentnurse/abgs.html
maire, ASN, RN 1,173 Posts Specializes in Adult Med-Surg, Rehab, and Ambulatory Care. Has 18 years experience. Dec 9, 2003 Thanks for the links!! :)
colleen10 1,326 Posts Dec 10, 2003 It took me a while to get the hang of it, but once you do you will find it really easy to understand.What I do that helps me when answering these questions is I make up a little table and list each thing to consider, ie. pH, CO2, CHO3 and then next to them put the normal values. Then I right in the values given in the problem and make remarks like Acidosis, Alkalosis.ie.pH 7.35-7.45 7.24 AcidCO2 35-45 48 AcidCHO3 22-28 25 NormalThen I look at everything and say, ok, pH is Acidosis so that's half of the problem right there. Then I see that the CO2 is out of range and Acidic and thus verifies that the pH is Acidosis. The CHO3 is normal so we know that the CO2 is causing the problem. Therefore it's Respiratory Acidosis.
