During induction of anesthesia by inhalation, the authors determined the fresh gas flow rate that would produce the desired rate of increase in circuit O
2 concentration and anesthetic delivery to the patient while concomitantly conserving total O
2 expenditure. Fresh O
2 flows of 0.5, 1, 2, 4, and 6 l/min were studied. The patients' hemodynamic profiles during anesthetic induction were also evaluated. When fresh O
2 flow was 0.5 or 1 l/min, the time for inspiratory O
2 concentration to reach 90% exceeded 20 min (44±12 and 20±6 min, respectively, mean±SD). With higher flow rates of 2, 4, or 6 l/min, the time to reach 90% inspired concentration of O
2 diminished progressively to 7.4±3.3, 4.3±2.6, 2.1±0.8 min, respectively. The calculated volume of fresh O
2 required to obtain a 96% inspiratory O
2 concentration was significantly smaller with the 2l/min flow than with other flow rate studied. With a flow of 0.5 or 1l/min, the increased O
2 usage was attributed to patient O
2 consumption that occurs during a long O
2 equilibration interval. With a flow of 4 or 6 l/min, the increased O
2 usage probably results from an increased volume of waste gas. When the anesthesia vaporizer was set to deliver 5% isoflurane for 5 min, end-expiratory isoflurane concentrations were greater than 1.76% (MAC intubation) in groups in which fresh O
2 flow was 2, 4, or 6 l/min. Hemodynamic changes were smallest in the group receiving 2 l/min fresh gas flow. These results suggest that a 2 l/min O
2 flow is suitable when a low flow technique is used for inhalational anesthetic induction.
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