The majority of arterial blood gas apps use a bicarbonate-centered approach to analyze a blood gas. The Friendly Base Deficit Calculator uses a base deficit-centered approach to solve acid-base abnormalities. The app is “Friendly” because it only requires three fields: pH, PaCO2, and base deficit. Other values that can be entered are Na, Cl, Lactate, albumin, and Cr. The more values entered the more complete of an analysis is obtained. The title page reinforces the simple concept that PaCO2 12mmHg = pH 0.1=Metabolic Acidosis 6mEq/L. The Friendly Base Deficit Calculator also alerts the user to the common problem of hyperchloremia/dysnatremia that can occur with large volume crystalloid resuscitations. The Calculator parses out the contribution of each item to the respiratory and metabolic components. It is also able to save results in an unidentified manner and graph them for easy visual review.

This app assists with patient care in the intensive care unit, operating room, and emergency department. It is most useful in the critically ill populations of trauma patients, post-op patients, and any ICU patient.

This is ideal for practicing physicians, fellows, residents, medical students, advance practice providers, and nurses who take care of critically ill patients and who need to be able to interpret the base deficit number.