The Clinical Recognition of Carbon Dioxide Intoxication

¹ The Veterans Administration Hospital and the Department of Radiology, University of California Medical Center.

Carbon dioxide intoxication has been presented as a syndrome occurring primarily in patients with chronic pulmonary disease. When the injudicious use of oxygen, pulmonary infection, congestive heart failure or depressant drugs further compromise pulmonary function, the neurological and cardio-pulmonary symptoms and signs of carbon dioxide intoxication become manifest. Attention has been called to the care which must the taken in the administration of oxygen and depressant drugs to patients with chronic pulmonary disease and to the importance of adding carbon dioxide intoxication to the differential diagnosis of the comatose state.