SEVOFLURANE AND THE 885A FIELD ANESTHESIA MACHINE - CLINICAL REPORT

The Ohmeda 8854 field anesthesia machine is equipped with a non-agent- specific, universal vaporizer that can be used with most volatile anes thetic agents. On a recent humanitarian medical mission to Honduras, t he 885A was used to administer general anesthesia to 26 patients utili zing sevoflurane, a new inhalational anesthetic with a variety of clin ical benefits, including less airway irritability, making it ideal for inhalation inductions. Flow rates for delivery of anesthetic agent me re calculated by using the enflurane portion of the Verni-Trol flow ca lculator wheel, because sevoflurane and enflurane have similar vapor p ressures, Calculated anesthetic concentrations mere compared with meas ured concentrations using linear regression analysis and found to have a Pearson product moment of 0.995, We find that the use of sevofluran e in the 885A is an excellent alternative to other inhalational anesth etic agents and may have applications for use during both military con flicts and peacetime missions in remote areas.