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Measuring anaesthetic gas capture in clinical practice a single-centre pilot study

Healthcare and clinical impacts

Resources, Conservation and Recycling April 2025

  • Date (DD-MM-YYYY)

    22-01-2025 to 22-07-2025

    Available on-demand until 22nd July 2025

  • Cost

    Subscription Required

  • Education type

    Article

  • CPD subtype

    On-demand

Description

Introduction

Waste volatile anaesthetic agents are greenhouse gases and are emitted unmodified into the atmosphere. New technologies exist that can capture these, claiming up to 99.9 % capture efficiency under ideal circumstances. We assessed one system to determine sevoflurane capture during routine clinical anaesthesia in our hospital.

Methods

We assessed sevoflurane delivery during clinical use. Sevoflurane and water mass captured by the capture canister relative to volatile administered to the patient was measured using the sum of mass change of vaporisers and canisters. The composition of captured contents was analysed by the manufacturer.

Results

2229.4 g of sevoflurane was lost from all vaporisers and mass gained by the SID-cans totalled 1161.4 g comprising water and volatile. Only 58.1 % of sevoflurane administered was available for capture.

Conclusion

If industry testing of volatile capture mass is correct, almost halving our institution's volatile anaesthesia emissions could be achieved with current practice patterns.

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