Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: [Phys-l] operating room physics





On 2010, Mar 03, , at 14:13, John Denker wrote:

Not just oxygen, but flammable anesthetics. Bad combination.



That was my thought, so I googled "halothane explosive", believing it to be the current one. Nada; quite safe also in combo w/ nitrous oxide.. I don't think ether has been used for 3/4 of a century.

chloroform is also a risk and not used either.

I'm too lazy to check out the other ones listed by wiki.

Agents



Bottles of enflurane, isoflurane, sevoflurane and desflurane, the common fluorinated ether anesthetics used in clinical practice. These agents are color-coded – see the ring around the neck. Also note the special fitting for desflurane, which boils near room temperature
Agents stored as liquids and administered by vaporizer include:
• diethyl ether - pungent smelling and extremely flammable; still used in the Third World
• chloroform - now abandoned for clinical use
• trichloroethylene - now abandoned for clinical use
• halothane (N01AB01) - sweet smelling, slow onset and offset, potent, risk of hepatitis with repeated use
• methoxyflurane (N01AB03) - analgesic, slow onset and offset, still used by paramedics as an emergencyanalgesic in trauma cases, but abandoned for hospital use as it is metabolised to toxic fluoride ions
• enflurane (N01AB04) - pungent smelling, lowers seizure threshold, relatively slow onset and offset
• isoflurane (N01AB06) - pungent smelling
• sevoflurane (N01AB08) - sweet smelling and quite rapid onset and offset, expensive
• desflurane (N01AB07) - pungent smelling but very rapid onset and offset, not very potent, expensive, requires special vaporizer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volatile_anaesthetic


bc