Capnography as a rapid assessment and triage tool for chemical terrorism

The assessment and triage of victims of chemical terrorism in the emergency department and the prehospital setting has become an important priority. This article proposes the use of capnography as a prehospital assessment and triage tool for monitoring victims of chemical terrorism and for critically ill patients. Capnography provides the ABCs in less than 15 seconds and identifies the common complications of chemical terrorism. Further, the reliability of capnography is not affected by motion artifact or low perfusion and it is accurate and reliable in actively seizing patients. Emergency departments and emergency medical services systems should consider adding capnography to their chemical terrorism education and training.