FAILURE MODES OCCURRING IN THE USE OF ANE STHETIC EQUIPMENT AND HOW TO AVOID THEM - A SURVEY

Despite the progress achieved in the fields of medical technology and quality assurance and extensive legal requirements there are still fai lures during the use of anaesthetic equipment which could be avoided. Describing well known failure modes the purpose of this paper is to sh arpen the sense for their occurrence and avoidance and thus to contrib ute to their reduction. The fi rst pa rt of this paper introduces the safety concept of an anaesthetic workstation. Central issues are the i ntended use, the state of engineering, preparation and checking,and ap propriate operator reactions. The second part deals with the interface between human being and machine. Following the modules of the anaesth etic workstation - breathing system, ventilator, dosage units for gase s and anaesthetic agents, monitoring - we will consider representative failures and risks which may accrue during the different stages of us e of the equipment.