Hypercapnia: Pathophysiology Of CO2 Retention

#Hypercapnia is derived from Greek word Kapnos, meaning smoke denoting #carbon #dioxide, hyper means over a certain limit, so hypercapnia refers to the amount of carbon dioxide over a certain limit in our blood.
This is also called hypercapnic respiratory failure.
As we have discussed, When the respiratory system fails to maintain gas exchange, it is characterized as type 1 or type 2 respiratory failure based on blood gas anomalies. The partial pressure of arterial oxygen (PaO2) is less than 60 millimeters of mercury (mmHg) in type 1 (hypoxemic) respiratory failure, whereas the partial pressure of arterial carbon dioxide (PaCO2) might be normal or low. PaCO2 is greater than 50 mmHg in type 2 (hypercapnic) respiratory failure, whereas PaO2 may be normal or low in the event of respiratory pump failure.