Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Low fresh gas flow may be defined as returning at least 50% of the exhaled gas to the lungs after CO2 absorption in a rebreathing system. In this study, we aimed to retrospectively search the effect of education of low fresh gas flow anesthesia on anesthetic gas consumption.

METHODS

This retrospective study was conducted on 86 patients who underwent surgery under general anesthesia between the dates of 02.05.2015 and 03.07.2015. Anesthesiologist staff of 21 people in our hospital received theoretical and practical education for two days. Anesthetic gas consumptions before and after 15 days from the starting day of education were compared. Forty-six of patients were male and 40 were female.

RESULTS

Age, height, weight, sex and ASA physical status scores did not differ significantly between groups before and after education. Consumption period per bottle (240ml) for desflurane was prolonged by 47%, consumption period per litre for nitrous oxide was prolonged by 63% and consumption period per litre for oxygen was prolonged by 95% after education. A statistically significant reduction in consumption per minute for desflurane (p=0.001), nitrous oxide (p<0.01) and oxygen (p<0.01) values in after education group was noted.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

One of the core topics of anesthesia which is studied in depth and defined in detail, anesthesia management with low fresh gas flow is still not implemented widespread in clinics of our country. We believe that the main reason for this to be the lack of education in anesthesia providers. In our study, we demonstrated that education of anesthesia providers led to significant cost and consumption reductions of anesthetic gases.