Anaesthetists use anaesthetic machines to support the administration of anaesthesia.

The machine includes the following components:

• connections to piped hospital oxygen, air, and nitrous oxide
• back-up gas cylinders of oxygen, air, and nitrous oxide
• flow meters for oxygen, air, and nitrous oxide
• one or more anaesthetic vaporisers to accurately add volatile anaesthetics to the fresh gas flow
• a ventilator
• physiological monitors to monitor patients' heart rate, ECG, blood pressure and oxygen saturation (additional monitors are generally available to monitor temperature, central venous pressure , pulmonary artery capillary wedge pressure , cardiac output, etc)

Based on experience gained from analysis of mishaps, the modern anaesthetic machine includes several safety devices, including:

• hypoxic mixture alarms
• ventilator disconnect alarms
• interlocks between the vaporisers preventing inadvertent administration of more than one volatile agent concurrently
• alarms on all the above physiological monitors.

There is generally a small work bench built into the machine where airway management equipment is kept within ready reach of the anaesthetist.

Links

• Virtual Anesthesia Machine (VAM), a free transparent reality simulation of a generic anesthesia machine from University of Florida
• A free workbook with structured exercises for use with the VAM simulation
• Virtual Anaesthesia Textbook