we are looking to withdraw our mercury sphygs from use in all areas. has anybody carried out an evaluation of other types and moved over to digital or anariod ones? any help would be appreciated.
alex
medical physics- dewsbury NHS Trust

Have you seen the S&K type aneroid? The MDA have a booklet out on the issue of blood pressure measurment devices - mercury & no mercury. ref: MDA DB2000(03)



[This message has been edited by Dieter Soerensen (edited 04 September 2000).]

We have a varied assortment of sphygs in use from good old reliable mercury to cheap & nasty digital at the Royal Surrey.
However we shall be looking at the new idea from PMS instruments - maybe even do a trial /evaluation in the future.

I'd be interested in other comments .....?

gjenner@royalsurrey.nhs.uk

We are evaluating aneroid sphygs and will probably go with Speidal & Keller stabil 3.
They are guaranteed to stay in calibration for 5 years.
It was also evaluated at Kings College Hospital and Henleys medical gave me a copy which I can't find now, but it was favourable and compared well with mercury.

I was wrong about the 5 year warranty, its 3 years (although I'm sure the rep said 5).

We have now decided to move away from mercury gradually. When the mercury columns require cleaning we scrap them and insist on aneroid replacements (speidel & keller).

Does anyone know what to do with the scrapped sphygs? (sesible suggestions only!)

Since thay don't need batteries and only minimal servicing - how about the Third World charities again ?

Roy
I'll try Echo international.

At Colchester we have a trust policy to remove all mercury devices from use. We have decided to use Accosson aneroid sphygs, not are they half the price of S&K but product support is much better. During our trial period the S&K sphyg did not prove to be anymore reliable or robust. In addition we have in place a service programme for the regular checking of these units. The issue of safe mercury disposal is another issue we had to address, we have a fume cabinet where the sphygs are emptied into fire proof flasks supplied by a mercury recycling company in the midlands they charge a nominal fee for collection. For any further information on this please contact Steve Connew (E.B.M.E. Medical Gas Engineer) 01206 742754