During a preoperative anesthetic machine check, moist air was found when a OR nurse connected ahose to a wall-outlet for compressed air. Since we saw some water in the water-trap of two anesthetic machines, we thought that the trouble originated in the central gas supply system. A system engineer who was called in detected failure of the auto-drainage system. The system was repaired by replacing a valve, and fortunately no clinical trouble or accidents occurred.
From our experience, we would recommend that the hose for compressed air should be transparent so that we can easily check for the presence of water inside. We also recommend that all anesthetic machines be equipped with a water-trap.
Regarding of condensed water, medical synthetic air system may be superior to compressed air. As anesthesists who use medical gases daily, we should have adequate knowledge of central gas supply system and its inheritant problems.
View full abstract