Patients receiving supplemental oxygen may experience significant persistent hypoventilation leading to progressive hypercarbia and acidosis which may go undetected for a significant time interval since the routinely monitored SpO2 may be maintained within normal range. A recent study has shown that despite the fact that end tidal CO2 is reliable in detecting apnea , increasing oxygen flow rates decrease the amplitude of measured CO2, probably via dilution, making the quantitative value less reliable as an assessment of adequacy of ventilation (15). Furthermore, during hypoventilation there is reduced alveolar ventilation and the end tidal CO2 is not a true reflection of arterial CO2.