Medical progress: Hypocapnia

Hypocapnia is neither a benign clinical entity nor an epiphenomenon. On the contrary, increasing evidence suggests that hypocapnia appears to induce substantial adverse physiological and medical effects. Thus, the decision to institute hypocapnia for therapeutic purposes should be undertaken only after careful consideration of the risks and benefits and should in general be limited to emergency management of life-threatening increases in intracranial pressure or pulmonary-vascular resistance. The risk of accidental hypocapnia should be recognized and measures taken to prevent it. Prophylactic induction of hypocapnia currently has no clinical role.