Understanding Anesthesiology - The Global Regional Anesthesia ...

Vapourizer
An anesthetic vapourizer is a device that is attached to the anesthetic machine and through
which the fresh gas from the flowmeters (oxygen, usually mixed with air or nitrous oxide)
flows. The vaporizer is able to deliver a precise concentration of volatile anesthetic agent
into that fresh gas mixture, according to the concentration selected by the anesthesiologist.
The vaporizer is a sophisticated device which is designed to adjust to variations in ambient
temperature, fresh gas flow and the vapour pressure of the volatile agent in use. There are
three different types in use in modern anesthesia care: the plenum, the drawover and the
dual-circuit gas–vapour blender. The latter type is required for the use of desflurane.
A given vapourizer is dedicated to the use of one particular volatile agent. For safety reasons,
they are colour coded. As well, they have unique nozzle designs that prevents the
wrong type of volatile anesthetic from filling the vapourizer. They are also designed such
that only one volatile cannister can be “on” at once. In other words, you can not deliver
more than one type of volatile agent at a time.
Related Glossary Terms
Desflurane, Inhaled agents, Isoflurane, MAC, Sevoflurane, Volatile
Index
Find Term
Chapter 2 - Anesthetic Equipment and Monitoring
Chapter 5 - Malignant Hyperthermia