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Arterial/Venous Blood Gas

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Location:
- Guggenheim: Between ORs 11 and 12, in the room marked "Utility".
- Annenberg: On Annenberg 7, right outside OR 19.
Make sure to ask your resident for the code to the ABG machine.
Make sure to take a patient's sticker with you.

Draw blood up in a heparinized tube.
Go to an ABG machine.
Click on the type of blood gas you need.
Enter the code for the ABG machine.
Enter the visit ID (NOT the MRN) or scan the barcode on your sticker with the barcode reader. The computer will load demographics automatically.
The machine will prompt you to begin aspirating the sample.
Place the sampler into your heparinized tube as below and click ok.
Do not throw the blood sample away until you have results. Once the analysis is complete, the machine will print the results out for you as well as upload them directly onto Epic.

A 1 mm Hg change in PaCO2 results in a 0.008 unit change in pH in the opposite direction.
Every 1 mEq/L reduction in [HCO3-] will decrease the PaCO2 by 1 mm Hg.
Every 1 mEq/L change in [HCO3-] will change the pH by 0.015 units in the same direction.