Monitoring in emergency medicine

Clinical observation is the most valuable monitoring technique we have. Complexity and invasiveness of monitoring increases from prehospital care to Emergency Department, to Anaesthesia and Intensive Care. Many methods of monitoring have specific applications. Non-invasive blood pressure monitoring has no advantages over conventional cuff methods, other than freeing the hands of the operator. Non-invasive cardiac output measurement, transcutaneous oxygen and carbon dioxide measurement are unlikely to play a major role in the foreseeable future in the emergency setting. The most exciting development in recent years has been the widespread availability of pulse oximetry, which allows beat by beat analysis of haemoglobin oxygen saturation.