Acid‐Base Disorders

Acid-base disorders are common in emergency room patients. Identifying and understanding acid-base abnormalities can play a valuable role in diagnosis, evaluation of disease severity, and patient monitoring. There are now affordable blood gas machines that allow acid-base analysis on a very small quantity of blood, making them a very useful tool in the emergency room. Developing a standardized approach to acid-base analysis can aid in simplifying the application of acid-base to patient care. Once an acid-base diagnosis is made, consideration for the possible underlying causes may help guide further diagnostic and therapeutic plans. This chapter reviews the key aspects of acid-base physiology and provides an overview of an approach to acid-base analysis and common rule-outs for major acid-base abnormalities.