(Carbon Dioxide Ph. Eur. 100%)
Consumer Medicine Information
What is in this leaflet
Please read this leaflet carefully before you receive this treatment. It provides a summary of the information known about your treatment. If you have any questions or are unsure about anything, ask your doctor.
Remember, this treatment is for you. It may harm someone else if they receive it even if their symptoms appear to be the same as yours. So do not give this treatment to anybody else. Keep this leaflet. You may wish to refer to it again.
What Medical Carbon Dioxide is used for
Medical Carbon Dioxide is used with anaesthetics. This is to make sure your blood levels of Carbon Dioxide are satisfactory so that you breathe easily during surgery. Medical Carbon Dioxide also makes you breathe in deeply so that the anaesthetic is rapidly effective and stays effective throughout the surgery.
Medical Carbon Dioxide can be used to stimulate your breathing if you stop breathing or if your breathing has been obstructed in some way, but is now cleared. Medical Carbon Dioxide can also be used to calm your breathing if you are over-breathing (hyperventilation).
Medical Carbon Dioxide may sometimes be used in clinical investigations including procedures to expand an organ inside your body so that it can be examined internally.
Before you take Medical Carbon Dioxide
If you are not sure if you should be taking Medical Carbon Dioxide, talk to your doctor.
Tell your doctor if:
You are pregnant or plan to become pregnant.
You are breast feeding or plan to breast feed.
If you cannot breathe properly because your airways are blocked, if you are being resuscitated, if your body fluids are abnormally acidic or if you are pregnant you should not use Medical Carbon Dioxide. Please consult your doctor.
High levels of Medical Carbon Dioxide breathed in can interact with anaesthetics and cause abnormal heart rhythms.
Medical Carbon Dioxide also interacts with adrenergic substances such as adrenaline and can affect how you absorb many drugs into your body including drugs to control your blood pressure and drugs affecting nerve signal transmission in your body (neuromuscular blocking agents). Please tell your doctor about any medicines you are taking before starting Medical Carbon Dioxide treatment.
You should not drive or operate machinery while taking Medical Carbon Dioxide.
How to take Medical Carbon Dioxide
Your doctor or nurse will decide how much Medical Carbon Dioxide you need. You will usually breathe the gas in via a face mask. You should only breathe in 5% or less Medical Carbon Dioxide (except for certain clinical investigations). For expanding organs of the body 100% Medical Carbon Dioxide may be used.
What to do if you take too much
If you breathe in too much Medical Carbon Dioxide (more than 6%) you will suffer from headaches, confusion, high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, rapid and heavy breathing. At higher levels of Medical Carbon Dioxide (more than 810%) you will be dizzy and become unconscious. At very high levels (more than 30%) in addition to unconsciousness, you will have extremely high blood pressure, very low heart rate and ECG changes. Convulsions may also occur. When you stop breathing in Medical Carbon Dioxide, all these effects are reversed.
While you are taking Medical Carbon Dioxide
If you take 5% Medical Carbon Dioxide, your breathing will become more rapid and you will breathe more deeply. Your skin will become pink and warm. You may sweat and feel uncomfortable. After taking Medical Carbon Dioxide for a long time, when you start breathing air again you may feel tired, develop a headache, go pale and feel sick or vomit.
Some patients undergoing laparoscopy, where Medical Carbon Dioxide is used to expand the organs, sometimes have abnormal heart rhythms. Heart failure due to gas bubbles in the blood has been reported.
Be sure to keep all of your appointments with your doctor so that your progress can be checked.
After using Medical Carbon Dioxide
Storage
Medical Carbon Dioxide is supplied to the hospital or clinic or doctor and they will be responsible for ensuring the container is stored in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions.
Disposal
Medical Carbon Dioxide is supplied to the hospital or clinic or doctor and they will be responsible for ensuring the container is returned to the manufacturer.
Product Description
What it looks like
Medical Carbon Dioxide is a colourless, odourless gas supplied in a pressurised gas cylinder with a valve. The gas cylinder contains only Medical Carbon Dioxide.
The gas cylinders’ colour code is a white body with a green grey shoulder (plus 2 x “N”), as determined by AS 4484.
Cylinder sizes include 2.8L, 9.5L, 23L and 50L, as measured by nominal water capacity.
Ingredients
Active
Carbon Dioxide 100% v/v.
Manufacturer/Distributor/ Supplier:
Coregas Pty. Ltd.
66 Loftus Road.
Yennora. NSW. 2161
Australia
AUST R 27190
This leaflet was prepared in June 2013.
Published by MIMS September 2019