“I still need to do a costing exercise to compare intravenous with AA. IV looks better for the patient, but we need to consider the risks and look at the on-costs to see if it compares with AA.”
John
I think it's premature to be considering replacing volatile anaesthetic agent anaesthesia with intravenous anaesthesia. Both will be around for the foreseeable future.
For the past 5 years I've recommend that when replacing an anaesthetic machine/system the replacement specification reduces the number of vaporisers from three to two and includes an TIVA /TCI pump. I can think of no major savings.
Paralysed, anaesthetised patients still require to be ventilated with at least O2 and Air. In some specific areas where anaesthetists opt only to use IV anaesthesia an anaesthetic ventilator incorporating an O2/Air mixer, emergency O2 bypass and patient suction could produce savings.
