ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING DURING GASEOUS INDUCTION WITH SEVOFLURANE

Recent research has shown that gaseous induction in adults with sevofl urane is an acceptable technique. This study was undertaken to assess if gaseous induction using sevoflurane carried in both oxygen alone, a nd in nitrous oxide and oxygen combined, would provide acceptable poll ution levels. As an occupational exposure standard has not been set fo r sevoflurane, we used the target level of 20 ppm set by the manufactu rer. Environmental monitoring was carried out in the anaesthetic room during eight lists where consecutive triple vital capacity sevoflurane inductions were performed. Time-weighted averages for both gases over the duration of the lists were well below the occupational exposure s tandards (mean 1.1 (range 0.6-1.7) for sevoflurane and 17.3 (12-23) fo r nitrous oxide). There were high peak concentrations during the induc tion process (8.3 (4.1-17) for sevoflurane and 172.4 (65-310) for nitr ous oxide) although these decreased to low concentrations between anae sthetic inductions. Personal sampling was carried out from the anaesth etist's breathing zone and concentrations were also low (1.2 (0.8-2.1) for sevoflurane and 45.9 (10.1-261.6) for nitrous oxide.