Anaesthesia Techniques

An Online Textbook

DevelopingAnaesthesia.org (a resource set up by David Pescod and Daniel Jolley from Melbourne, Australia) has, amongst other things, an online textbook of anaesthesia - Developing Anaesthesia. Plenty of information about core anaesthesia theory and techniques can be found here. A very good place to start.

Induction of Anaesthesia

As an aid during ether induction with the EMO (Epstein Macintosh Oxford) vaporiser about 3 ml of halothane (for an adult) is placed (via a fine needle through the rubber, or poured) into the loop of tubing between the EMO and the bellows/self-inflating bag. The halothane will vaporise entirely within 3 - 4 minutes and allows the initially delivered ether concentration to be higher than would otherwise be tolerated, and thus induction is facilitated.

Care must be exercised to ensure that the liquid halothane does not run towards the patient end of the tubing.

See also BSIU (Bryce-Smith Induction Unit) ­ a no longer produced commercial item.

Patricia Coyle FRCA, FANZCA