Knowledge of bicarbonate concentrations is needed to assess respiratory failure

EDITOR—Williams has not emphasised the importance of looking at the bicarbonate concentration in patients presenting with respiratory failure.1 Depressingly often, intensive care doctors are presented with patients rendered unnecessarily hypoxic by the casualty or medical teams: any patients with a raised arterial carbon dioxide concentration are immediately starved of oxygen in case they stop breathing. The teams should look at the bicarbonate …