The 2010 American Heart Association Guidelines now endorse wave form capnography as a Level I recommendation for ET tube verification, a Level IIa reccomendation for detecting return of spontaneous circulation and a IIb for monitoring CPR quality.

Capnography is the vital sign of ventilation

By tracking the carbon dioxide in a patient’s exhaled breath, capnography enables paramedics to objectively evaluate a patient’s ventilatory status (and indirectly circulatory and metabolic status), as the medics utilize their clinical judgement to assess and treat their patients.

Waveform capnography provides real-time feedback on how patients are breathing or ventilated