@article{ref1,
title="Hypoxic hazards of traditional paper bag rebreathing in hyperventilating patients",
journal="Annals of emergency medicine",
year="1989",
author="Callaham, M.",
volume="18",
number="6",
pages="622-628",
abstract="It is traditional practice to treat acute hyperventilation (thought to be due to anxiety) by having patients rebreathe into a brown paper bag. The author reports three cases in which this treatment, erroneously applied to patients who were hypoxemic or had myocardial ischemia, resulted in death. This clinical experience motivated a study of the effects of paper bag rebreathing in normal volunteers. Subjects deliberately hyperventilated to an average end-tidal CO2 concentration of 21.6 (SD, 3.2) mm Hg and then continued to hyperventilate into a no. 4 Kraft brown paper bag containing the calibrated sensors for a Hewlett-Packard 47210A capnograph and a Teledyne TED 60J digital oxygen monitor. Fourteen men and six women with an average age of 36 years (SD, 6.1) were tested. <br><br>RESULTS are reported as mm Hg. After 30 seconds of rebreathing, mean change in O2 from room air was -15.9 (SD, 4.6) and mean CO2 was 38.7 (SD, 6.2); at 60 seconds, -20.5 (6.0) and 40.2 (6.4); at 90 seconds -22 (6.8) and 40.5 (6.4); at 120 seconds -23.6 (6.8) and 40.7 (6.5); at 150 seconds -25.1 (1.2) and 41 (7.3); and at 180 seconds -26.6 (8.4) and 41.3 (7.5). A few subjects achieved CO2 levels as high as 50, but many never reached 40. The mean maximal drop in O2 was 26 (8.8); seven subjects had drops in oxygen of 26 mm Hg at three minutes, four had drops of 34 mm Hg, and one had a drop of 42 mm Hg.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)<p /><p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0196-0644",
doi="",
url="http://dx.doi.org/"
}