We have recently placed into service 5 Sirius 3000 anaesthetic machines. Since their intoduction we have experienced water build up in the patient circuits & the absorber canister. This is causing grief with the staff in theatres as they are having to replace the patient circuits and monitoring lines 2 to 3 times per day and sometimes more thereby adding to the cost of anaesthesia. Can anyone tell me if they have had a similar experience and what they have done to resolve this issue. This has not been a problem with the previous anaesthesia machines.
This is something I'm trying to determine at present, however as this was not a problem before introduction and nothing appears to have changed except the machine I'm looking for other reasons & solutions.
Sounds like a case of rain-out to me. Dew point and all that stuff. Must be a heater wire or some such thing not plugged in somewhere. No water trap in the circuit, then? Oh well, back to the drawing board.
Where is the sodalime in the circuit? This is probably the source of the water especially as you said it is in the canister. Was the previous machine removing the vapour via the scavenging? Is the sodalime further round the circuit so as the vapour is produced it is being blown up the tubes?
You said they are having to replace the circuits more frequently. Are these single patient use circuits we are talking about? Yes I know what the norm is in theatres but should they really be reusing them. They are actually contravening several rules and guidelines. Robert
My spelling is not bad. I am typing this on a Medigenic keyboard and I blame that for all my typos.
Thank you all for your postings. We have had a productive meeting with Blease regarding this issue and although quite complex with a number of variable we are confident that it will be resolved.
