Capnography activation is improved by better ventilator interface ergonomics

In critical care, capnography is recommended [1]. Upon intubation this is important to rapidly confirm endotracheal tube position. Often capnography is built into critical care ventilators, but as these are frequently used for non-invasive ventilation it is necessary that this monitoring may be switched off and on. We postulated that the ease with which this could be done would relate to the ergonomic design of the ventilation interface and compared the Drager Evita 4 and Drager V500. The Evita 4 has a button hidden within the alarm limits section, whereas on the V500, which has locally configurable interface, this had been placed on the main screen.