Nichols RH, et al. - Researchers assessed the efficacy of an impedance-based respiratory volume monitor (RVM) in improving the safety of patients undergoing upper and lower gastrointestinal endoscopies under total intravenous anesthesia, presuming that feedback from the RVM would allow anesthesiologists to maintain adequate ventilation, which would reduce the duration of respiratory depression (ie, hypoventilation and apnea) compared to a blinded control group. A higher incidence of hypoventilation and apnea was observed in the control group vs RVM intervention group, suggesting the potential for RVM to be a useful tool for detecting early signs of respiratory depression and for titrating anesthetics to maintain adequate ventilation while minimizing patient risk.