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Review
. 2013 Sep;57(5):489-99.
doi: 10.4103/0019-5049.120145.

The anaesthesia gas supply system

Sabyasachi Das  1 , Subhrajyoti Chattopadhyay, Payel Bose
Affiliations
Review

The anaesthesia gas supply system

Sabyasachi Das et al. Indian J Anaesth. 2013 Sep.

Abstract

The anaesthesia gas supply system is designed to provide a safe, cost-effective and convenient system for the delivery of medical gases at the point of-use. The doctrine of the anaesthesia gas supply system is based on four essential principles: Identity, continuity, adequacy and quality. Knowledge about gas supply system is an integral component of safe anaesthetic practice. Mishaps involving the malfunction or misuse of medical gas supply to operating theatres have cost many lives. The medical gases used in anaesthesia and intensive care are oxygen, nitrous oxide, medical air, entonox, carbon dioxide and heliox. Oxygen is one of the most widely used gases for life-support and respiratory therapy besides anaesthetic procedures. In this article, an effort is made to describe the production, storage and delivery of anaesthetic gases. The design of anaesthesia equipment must take into account the local conditions such as climate, demand and power supply. The operational policy of the gas supply system should have a backup plan to cater to the emergency need of the hospital, in the event of the loss of the primary source of supply.

Keywords: Cylinders; manifolds; medical gases; pipelines; vacuum-insulated evaporators.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: None declared

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Oxygen concentrator
Figure 2
Figure 2
(a) Vacuum insulated evaporator (schematic), (b) Vacuum insulated evaporator (pictorial)
Figure 3
Figure 3
Pin index safety system
Figure 4
Figure 4
Cylinder manifold
Figure 5
Figure 5
Terminal wall outlets
Figure 6
Figure 6
Schraeder probes for different gases
Figure 7
Figure 7
Non-interchangeable screw threaded connection for different gases
Figure 8
Figure 8
Area valve service unit
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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