E-cylinder-powered mechanical ventilation may adversely impact anesthetic management and efficiency.

Abstract

Anesthesiologists often administer care outside the operating room. These locations may depend on gas cylinders for their oxygen source more than the operating suites supplied by dedicated central pipelines. Using full E-cylinders, we determined the oxygen consumption of two often used, pneumatically driven anesthesia ventilators to answer three questions: How much time is available when mechanically ventilating patients in the setting of absent or malfunctioning central oxygen pipeline? How much oxygen is used by the ventilator to drive the bellows? How does changing the inspiratory to expiratory ratio and the inspiratory flow (Narkomed ventilator only) influence oxygen use? At a ventilation of 5 L/min, we found that mechanical ventilation consumes between 59% and 85% of the available oxygen in an E-cylinder to drive the ventilator at fresh gas flows ranging from 1 to 10 L/min. The time span until the low oxygen alarm sounded ranged from 38 to 99 min. Alteration of the inspiratory flow but not the inspiratory to expiratory ratio had a significant impact. Clinicians must recognize that mechanical ventilation using E-cylinders rapidly depletes this sole oxygen source and could jeopardize patient safety. Conversely, manual or spontaneous ventilation with low fresh gas flows minimizes oxygen depletion. The time available to ventilate patients with an E-cylinder tank as the sole oxygen source was found to be as short as 38 min. Clinicians must recognize that mechanical ventilation using oxygen cylinders rapidly depletes oxygen and could jeopardize patient safety.