Sevoflurane and the 885A field anesthesia machine: clinical report

The Ohmeda 885A field anesthesia machine is equipped with a non-agent-specific, universal vaporizer that can be used with most volatile anesthetic agents. On a recent humanitarian medical mission to Honduras, the 885A was used to administer general anesthesia to 26 patients utilizing sevoflurane, a new inhalational anesthetic with a variety of clinical benefits, including less airway irritability, making it ideal for inhalation inductions. Flow rates for delivery of anesthetic agent were calculated by using the enflurane portion of the Verni-Trol flow calculator wheel, because sevoflurane and enflurane have similar vapor pressures. Calculated anesthetic concentrations were compared with measured concentrations using linear regression analysis and found to have a Pearson product moment of 0.995. We find that the use of sevoflurane in the 885A is an excellent alternative to other inhalational anesthetic agents and may have applications for use during both military conflicts and peacetime missions in remote areas.