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In this section, I'm going to cover respiratory failure and some of the medications that may be

used in intubation. So first off, just briefly on some definitions here, so respiratory failure, it's failure of gas exchange in the lung.

You remember that role, the interplay between bringing oxygen in and expiring and eliminating CO2.

I mean, that's what the lungs are designed to do.

We've got to get oxygen to the blood, and our lungs do that for us.

And if those lungs are failing, we're losing out on both of those processes, right?

So low oxygen is the most common form of respiratory failure.

That's defined as a PA-O-2 of less than 60 millimeters of mercury.

Normal or low PCO2 can happen and then associated with this situation and then pneumonia

and pulmonary edema can happen as well there.

Hypercapnic, so this is an elevated PCO2, so that's kind of on the flip side of, you know, low oxygen

would be that that PCO2 is going to rise.

That's, you know, a potential complication from respiratory failure.

Certain situations where this is more likely,

...