ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the various methods of treatment that have been attempted for carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning. The treatment of a patient suffering from CO poisoning must initially focus on maintaining the patient’s airway, ventilation, oxygenation, and adequate perfusion. A cornerstone to the treatment of patients with CO poisoning is the use of supplemental O2. O. Bernard showed that CO will bind with hemoglobin and precipitate an hypoxic stress. J. Haldane underscored the hypoxic character of CO poisoning by demonstrating that unconsciousness in mice exposed to CO at a partial pressure of approximately 1 atm could be prevented by concurrently exposing the animals to hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) at 2 atmospheres absolute. The first controlled animal experiment to investigate the effect of HBO on mortality was done by E. C. Pearce et al., who showed a significant benefit in a dog model.
