Oxygen pipeline supply failure: A coping strategy

Abstract

Oxygen is the most vital drug administered during anesthesia. The delivery of hypoxic or even anoxic gas mixtures during anesthesia has been reported. Because such occurrences often meet with disaster, modern anesthesia machines have a system of alarms to warn against the delivery of hypoxic or anoxic gas mixtures and also to warn of the failure of the oxygen pipeline supply. We describe the occurrence of a sudden failure of the oxygen pipeline supply, and discuss a strategy for coping with this emergency.

Central oxygen pipeline failure

“…Anderson (1991) 13 reported on a 34-year-old woman, scheduled for a total abdominal hysterectomy, where, 55 minutes into the procedure, a sudden loss of pipeline oxygen pressure and flow occurred. Emergency oxygen was administered via the reserve oxygen tanks and the patient remained unaffected.…”

An Insidious Failure of an Oxygen Analyzer

“…B efore the development of modern anesthesia workstations, the delivery of hypoxic gas mixtures to patients under general anesthesia caused a significant number of deaths (1)(2)(3)(4). Use of an oxygen analyzer with a low concentration alarm limit during the administration of general anesthesia is required under several national anesthesiology societies' monitoring standards (5,6).…”

Disruption of the oxygen supply to a heart‐lung machine

“…The danger of failure of the bulk oxygen supply to hospitals [1–4] has been addressed, especially in regard to anaesthesia machines [2–4]. Stoller et al .…”