[Equipment failures in anesthesia and how to avoid them. An overview]

Despite the progress achieved in the fields of medical technology and quality assurance and extensive legal requirements there are still failures during the use of anaesthetic equipment which could be avoided. Describing well known failure modes the purpose of this paper is to sharpen the sense for their occurrence and avoidance and thus to contribute to their reduction. The first part of this paper introduces the safety concept of an anaesthetic workstation. Central issues are the intended use, the state of engineering, preparation and checking, and appropriate operator reactions. The second part deals with the interface between human being and machine. Following the modules of the anaesthetic workstation--breathing system, ventilator, dosage units for gases and anaesthetic agents, monitoring--we will consider representative failures and risks which may accrue during the different stages of use of the equipment.