Concentrations of methoxyflurane and nitrous oxide in veterinary operating rooms

The surgical rooms of 14 private veterinary practices were monitored to determined methoxyflurane (MOF) concentrations during surgical procedure under routine working conditions. The average room volume for these 14 rooms was 29 m3. The average MOF value for all rooms was 2.3 ppm, with a range of 0.7 to 7.4 ppm. Four of the 14 rooms exceeded the maximum recommended concentration of 2 ppm. Six rooms which had 6 or more air changes/hr averaged 1.1 ppm, whereas 8 rooms with less than 6 measurable air changes/hr averaged 3.2 ppm. Operating rooms that had oxygen flows of more than 1,000 cm3/min averaged 4.4 ppm, whereas those with flows of less than 1,000 cm3/min averaged 1.5 ppm. The average time spent during a surgical procedure using MOF, for all 14 facilities, was 2 hours. Nitrous oxide (N2O) concentrations were determined in 4 veterinary surgical rooms. The average N2O concentration for 3 rooms without waste anesthetic gas scavenging was 138 ppm. Concentration of N2O in the waste anesthetic gas-scavenged surgical room was 14 ppm, which was below the maximum recommended concentration of 25 ppm.