Abstract
This chapter discusses the clinical application of saturated vapor pressure in vaporizers. A vaporizer is a device for adding clinically useful concentrations of anesthetic vapor to a stream of carrier gas. The saturated vapor pressure of volatile anesthetic agents at room temperature is many times greater than that required to produce anesthesia, and so a vaporizer mixes gas passing through a vaporizing chamber with gas containing no vapor to produce a final mixture with the appropriate concentration. Gas can be made to flow through a vaporizer in one of two ways. Firstly, a positive pressure can be developed upstream of the vaporizer so that gas is pushed through. This is known as a plenum vaporizer. Alternatively, a negative pressure may be developed in the gas stream distal to the vaporizer, thus drawing gas through. This is known as a draw-over vaporizer, and the negative pressure may be generated either by the patient's respiratory effort or by mechanical means.
Published Version
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