Anaesthesia & intensive care medicine
Volume 11, Issue 4 , Pages 131-135, April 2010

Anaesthetic breathing systems

Angela Chung FRCA is a Specialist Registrar in Anaesthesia at the Royal Blackburn Hospital, Blackburn, UK. Conflicts of interest: none declared

Stephen Gilligan FRCA is a Consultant in Anaesthesia and Critical Care Medicine at the Royal Blackburn Hospital, Blackburn, UK. Conflicts of interest: none declared

Abstract 

Breathing systems connect the patient's airway to the anaesthetic machine and function to deliver oxygen and volatile gases to that patient. Gas analysers are incorporated within the system to improve accuracy of gas delivery, but we describe how the commonly used breathing systems function without them; other systems available are mentioned for completeness. We also describe the role of carbon dioxide absorbers and how they function.

Keywords: Carbon dioxide absorbers, circle systems, gas flow efficiency, Humphrey ADE system, Mapleson classification, non-rebreathing systems, rebreathing systems

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PII: S1472-0299(10)00023-8

doi:10.1016/j.mpaic.2010.01.004

Anaesthesia & intensive care medicine
Volume 11, Issue 4 , Pages 131-135, April 2010

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