Premium
Air contamination of a closed anesthesia circuit
Author(s) -
Mizuno K.,
Sumiyoshi R.
Publication year - 1998
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.1399-6576.1998.tb05093.x
Subject(s) - medicine , contamination , anesthesia , closed circuit , electrical engineering , engineering , ecology , biology
Closed‐circuit anesthesia (CCA) has certain advantages such as decreased cost, decreased anesthetic gas pollution, improved in‐halational gas humidity and temperature in comparison to conventional inhalational anesthesia using a high fresh gas flow, i.e. more than 2 L. min ‐1 , with a semi‐closed breathing circuit. The main disadvantage of CCA is the possibility of hypoxic anesthetic gas delivery. This potentially lethal situation is caused by an insufficient oxygen flow rate for the body metabolism or by the accumulation of inactive gas, usually nitrogen, within the breathing circuit in spite of a sufficient oxygen concentration in the fresh gas supply to the breathing circuit. In the latter case, the accumulation of inactive gas may also lead an increased risk of awareness because of its dilution effect on the concentrations of inhalational anesthetics. We herein present a case of air contamination of the breathing circuit through a sampling line of an anesthetic gas monitor. The air caused a decrease in the oxygen concentration during closed circuit anesthesia.