Commonly used anaesthetic equipments with their function and brief description are concised here.

1. Chairperson
Prof. Dr. Munirul Islam
Head,Dept. Of Anaesthesiology & Intensive Care;
Mymensingh Medical College & Hospital.
Presenter
Dr. Mehedi Hasan,M.B.B.S.
D.A. Resident
Mymensingh Medical College & Hospital
Session: July 2016-’18.

2. Anaesthetic machine
Anaesthetic vaporizers
Anaesthetic breathing system
Ventilator
Defibrillator
Pulse oxymeter
Oxygen mask
Nasal oxygen set
Artificial resuscitator/Bag valve mask
Guedel airway
Laryngeal mask airway/L.M.A
Laryngoscope

3. Endotracheal tube
Magill’s forceps
Spinal needle/L.P needle
Tuohy needle
Epidural catheter
Tracheostomy tube
Suction catheter
Central venous catheter
Peripheral venous catheter/Intravenous cannula
Accessory equipments, e.g
Infusion set
NG tube
Water & sand bag

4.  It is also named as the
Boyle’s Machine.
 The Anaesthetic
machine is used by
the anaesthesiologists
to support the
administration of
anaesthesia.

5.  The most common type of anaesthetic
machine in use now-a-days in the developed
countries is the continuous-flow anaesthetic
machine.
 It is designed to provide an accurate and
continuous supply of medical gases with
accurate concentration of anaesthetic
vapour.

6. Parts:
 Cylinders/ Pipe line gas
system
 Reducing valves
 Vaporizers
 Flow meters
 Sodalime canister
 Breathing circuits

7.  An anaesthetic
vaporizer is a device
generally attached to
an anaesthetic
machine which
delivers a given
concentration of
volatile anaesthetic
agent.

8.  It vaporizes the liquid anaesthetic agent to gas
and adds to fresh gas flow before coming out
from common gas outlet.
 Different agent has different vaporizers and
color code identifies the type of agent(such as
yellow for sevoflurane,purple for isoflurane)

9.  A ventilator is a machine designed to move
breathable air into & out of the lungs,to provide
breathing for a patient who is physically unable
to breathe or breathing insufficiently.
 Primitive mechanical ventilator was “drinker
respirator” introduced in 1928,then improvement
done by John Haven emerson in 1931.
 Modern ventilators can act as constant or non-
constant generators of either pressure or flow.
 The ventilator has to execute an inspiratory
phase,cycle from inspiration to expiration & an
expiratory pause,and then cycle back to
inspiration.

10.  Pressure generator: It delivers a
preset pressure to the patient.
 Flow generator: It delivers preset
flow whatever the resistance &
compliance of respiratory system.
 Power: It is required during
inspiratory phase,typically about
20W.Peak power production must
exceed peak airway pressure.
 Cycling: It is initiated by
time,volume,pressure,flow or
patient triggering.
 Expiration: It is generally passive
release to the atmosphere.

11.  An oxygen mask provides a
method to transfer breathing
oxygen from a storage tank to
the lungs.
 It is of two types. The simple
face mask and non-rebreathing
face mask.
 It is made of plastic,silicone or
rubber.

12.  It is a device used to
deliver supplemental
oxygen or increased
airflow to a patient
or person in need of
respiratory help.
 It consists of a
lightweight tube and
two prongs(which
are placed in the
nostrils)

13.  Use of artificial
resuscitator to
ventilate a patient is
frequently called
“bagging”
 Also named as-
 Manual resuscitator
 Bag-valve mask
 AMBU(Artificial
manual breathing
unit)bag
 Self-inflating bag

14.  It is a hand-held device commonly used to
provide positive pressure ventilation to those
patient who are not breathing or not breathing
adequately.
 The device is a required part of resuscitation kit
for trained professional in out-of-hospital
settings.
 It is used within hospital for temporary
ventilation of patients.

15.  Two principal type of manual resuscitator
exists.
 One version is self filling with air with
additional oxygen(but this oxygen is not
required for its function)
 The other version is the flow-inflation
type,whice is heavily used in non-emergency
application in operating room to ventilate
patients during induction & recovery of
anaesthesia.

16.  It is a medical device whis is an airway
adjunct used to maintain or open a patient’s
airway.

17.  An oropharyngeal airway(OPA) is also known
as oral airway.The another type of airway is
naso-pharyngeal airway.
 It does this by preventing tongue falling back
on epiglottis, which could prevent the person
from breathing
 When a person becomes unconscious,the
muscles in their jaw relax & allow the tongue
to obstruct the airway.

18.  It is a medical device that keeps a patient’s
airway open during anaesthesia or
unconsciousness.
 It is a type of supra-glottic airway.

19.  Laryngeal mask was invented by British
anaesthesiologist Dr. Archibald Brain in the
early 1980’s.
 A laryngeal mask is composed of an airway
tube that connects to an elliptical mask with
a cuff which is inserted through the patient’s
mouth and once deployed forms an airtight
seal on top of the glottis(unlike E.T. Tubes).

20.  It is used by the anaesthesiologists & emergency
health-care provider(paramedics) to channel oxygen
or anaesthetic gases to lungs during surgery & pre-
hospital settings.
 It is also used as the optional device of
Endotracheal tube during failed or difficult
intubation,geriatric patients or patients of gross
anatomic abnormality.

21.  Oxymetry is a spectrophotometric technique
that measures % haemoglobin saturation in
peripheral blood(Sp𝑂2).There are two types of
oxymetry,transmissive and reflectance
oxymetry.In our OT setting we use tranmissive
oxymetry.
 A pulse oxymeter is a medical device that
indirectly monitors the oxygen saturation of a
patient.
 In 1935, German physician Karl Matthes
developed the first pulse oxymeter,and finally

22. after varying degree of
modification it was
commercially available in
market & had begun to use in
operating room from 1983.
 A blood-oxygen monitor
displays the % of
hemoglobin that is loaded
with oxygen.
 Without any pulmonary
pathology normal range of
% saturation varies from 95-
99%.

23.  A typical pulse oxymeter utilizes an
electronic microprocessor & a pair of small
LEDs facing a photodiodes through a
translucent part of the body.
 One LED is red(wavelength 660nm) and the
other is Infra-red(wavelength 940nm).The
prototype of Karl Matthes was red & green.
 Oxygenated Hb absorbs more infrared &
allows more red to pass through and vice
versa for deoxygenated Hb.
 The ratio of the red light to the infra-red is
then measured by the microprocessors &
showed in the monitor.

24.  Advantages:
1. Convenient for non-invasive continuous
saturation monitoring.
2. Useful in any setting where patient’s
oxygenation is unstable inclusively in ICU,OT,recovery
room,post-operative room,emergency etc.
Limitations:
1. It cannot be used as a substitute of blood-gas
analysis because it gives no indication of base
excess/deficit,blood pH or bicarbonate.
2. Pulse oxymeter gives % of bound Hb,so false high
reading gives in severe anaemia where blood will carry
less total oxygen despite the Hb being 100% saturated.

25.  Defibrillation is a common treatment for life
threatening cardiac dysrhythmias and
ventricular fibrillation.
 It consists of delivering a therapeutic dose
of electric current to the heart with a
device called defibrillator.
 Defibrillators depolarizes a critical mass of
the heart muscle,terminates dysrhythmia
and allows normal sinus rhythm to be re-
established by the body’s natural
pacemakers.

26.  There are different types of defibrillator,e.g.
Manual external defibrillator
Manual internal defibrillator
Automated external defibrillator(AED)
Implantable cardioverter defibrillator.

27.  A defibrillator circuit operation consists of two
phases,charging & discharging.
 In charging phase the switch connects the
capacitor to the DC power supply,which charges it
to deliver the required amount of energy or
number of joules set by the operator.
 On discharge phase the switch connects the
capacitor to the patient’s circuit,which enables
the stored charge to be delivered to the patient.
 The inductor in the discharge circuit has the
effect of spreading out the delivered pulse of
energy to the myocardium.

28. It is a metalic
medical
device with
in-built light
source which
is used for
direct
laryngoscopy.

29.  This device is of two types,simple
laryngoscope & fiber-optic laryngoscope.
 The blade of the laryngoscope is of two
types,curved blade or Macintosh type &
straight blade or Miller type.

30.  Parts of a laryngoscope:
Beak/Tip
Web/Vertical step
Light source
Horizontal flange
Tongue spatula
Hook on base
Handle

31.  Endotracheal tube is a medical device that is
nearly always inserted through the mouth or
in case through the nose to allow oxygen or
anaesthetic gases to the lungs from an
external source.
 Types of endotracheal tube include oral or
nasal, cuffed or non-cuffed,preformed
tube,reinforced tubes and double lumen
endotracheal tubes.

32.  Parts of an endotracheal
tube:
Universal airway connector
Tube
Radio-opaque line
Pilot tube
Pilot inflator bag
Cuff- High volume-low
pressure & high
pressure-low volume
cuff
Murphy’s eye
Two black lines

33.  Functions of different parts:
Universal airway connector- To connect with
breathing circuit or AMBU bag
Radio-opaque line- Identify placement of tube
radiologically
Pilot tube- To inflate the cuff
Two black lines- Vocal cords should be in
between the lines
Murphy’s eye- To keep patency when the
secretion blocks the tube & to keep the
patency of upper right bronchus.

34.  Most E.T tubes today are made of PVC.
 Preformed E.T tubes e.g. RAE(Ring,Adair,Elwyn)
tube which is used in Oto-laryngeal surgical
procedures.
 Robertshaw developed double-lumen endo-
bronchial tubes for thoracic surgery.This allow
single lung ventilation to collapse the another.

35.  Use of endotracheal tubes:
Commonly used for the airway management in
the setting of general anaesthesia,critical
care,mechanical ventilation & emergency medicine.
It can be used also as a route of
administration of certain drugs like
salbutamol,atropine,ipratropium.
It can be used to deliver oxygen in higher
concentration than found in air.
 For human use, tubes range in size from 2.5 to
10.5 in internal diameter.

36.  It is also known as “Intubating
forceps”
 It is a right handed
instrument,angled in two planes
which allows for it to be used in
the oro & hypopharynx under
direct vision during laryngoscopy.
 It is designed by an Irish
Anaesthetist Sir Ivan Whiteside
Magill & hence this was named.

37.  The most common application of this
instrument is to maneuver the endotracheal
tube in nasal intubation.
 It is used to pick up the ET tube in the
posterior oropharynx & place its tip into the
laryngeal inlet.
 It can also be useful in clearing foreign
bodies from the upper airway in
anaesthetized or unconscious patient.
 Another use of this device is in placing &
removing throat packs.

38.  The special needle which is used in giving Sub-
Arachnoid block(SAB) is known as spinal needle.
 The very first spinal needle was designed by J.
Leonard Corning in 1885.Then the shape of the
needle tip started as a cutting bevel & developed
into the atraumatic tip in 1891 by Quincke.He used
a sharp,bevelled,hollow needle.

39. There are differnt types of spinal needle
tip,e.g.
Whitacre: Designed to spread the dural fibers
& help reduce the occurance of post-dural puncture
headache(PDPH).Yields a distinct “pop” as the
pencil point penetrates the dura.
Quincke: Short bevelled,cutting tip.Insertion
results in the needle cutting parallel to the dural
fibers.
Sprotte: As the fibers of the dura run parallel
to the long axix of the spine,if the bevel of the
needle is parallel to them,it will part rather than
cut them, and therefore leave a smaller hole.

40.  Tuohy needle/Epidural needle is a hollow
hypodermic needle which is specially designed to
be placed into the epidural space.
 It is designed with a curved tip to help prevent
puncture of the dural membrane.

41.  Ralph L. Huber, a Seattle dentist was the
inventor of this needle. It is known in the
name of an American anaesthetist Edward
Boyce Tuohy who first popularized it in 1945.
 Other types of epidural needles include:
The Crawford needle
The Hustead needle
The Weiss needle
The Sprotte Spezial needle
Wagner needle,Cheng needle,Crawley
needle etc are less popular epidural needle.

42.  Epidural catheter is a very thin flexible tube that is
implanted into spines & tunneled under skin.
 It is used as a route of administration of ongoing
doses of medication that stop nerves from sensing
pain during long term pain management.

43.  Tracheostomy tube is a medical device which is
used as a bypass airway after a surgical
procedure of making an incision on the anterior
aspect of neck named tracheostomy.
 Tube is sized according to the internal
diameter, may be cuffed or uncuffed.
 Indication of tracheostomy includes severe
facial trauma,tumors of the head & neck,acute
angioedema and acute inflammatory conditions
of head & neck.

44.  Parts are outer cannula or
main shaft,inner cannula &
obturator.
 The obturator is used when
inserting the tube to guide
the placement of main shaft
& is removed when main
shaft is in place.
 There is an inner cannula
that may be removed for
cleaning or replaced.

45.  Suction catheters are flexible,long tubes used to
remove respiratory secretions from the airway.
 The purpose of suctioning is to keep the airway
clear of secretions & to prevent plugging.
 One end is attached to the collecting container
which generates suction pressure.
 Sterilized by ethelene oxide gas.

46.  An intravenous or I.V cannula is a tube that is
inserted into a peripheral vein in order to
administration of I.V medication.
 Its internal diameter is defined by the gauge e.g
20G,22G etc.
 Another name is peripheral venous catheter.