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A simplified concept for controlling oxygen mixtures in the anaesthetic machine — better, cheaper and more user‐friendly?
Author(s) -
Berge J. A.,
Gramstad L.,
Grimnes S.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
acta anaesthesiologica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.738
H-Index - 107
eISSN - 1399-6576
pISSN - 0001-5172
DOI - 10.1111/j.1399-6576.1995.tb04121.x
Subject(s) - medicine , user friendly , anesthesia , oxygen , local anaesthetic , intensive care medicine , operating system , chemistry , organic chemistry , computer science
Modern anaesthetic machines are equipped with several safety components to prevent delivery of hypoxic mixtures. However, such a technical development has increased the complexity of the equipment. We report a reconstructed anaesthetic machine in which a paramagnetic oxygen analyzer has provided the means to simplify the apparatus. The new machine is devoid of several components conventionally included to prevent hypoxic mixtures: oxygen failure protection device, reservoir O 2 alarm, N 2 O/air selector, and proportioning system for oxygen/nitrous oxide delivery. These devices have been replaced by a simple safety system using a paramagnetic oxygen analyzer at the common gas outlet, which in a feed‐back system cuts off the supply of nitrous oxide whenever the oxygen concentration falls below 25%. The simplified construction of the anaesthetic machine has important consequences for safety, cost and user‐friendliness. Reducing the complexity of the construction also simplifies the pre‐use checkout procedure, and an efficient 5‐point check list is presented for the new machine.