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TECHNOLOGY, COMPUTING, AND SIMULATION

Online Monitoring of Air Quality at the Postanesthetic Care Unit by Proton-Transfer-Reaction Mass Spectrometry

Josef Rieder, MD^*, Peter Prazeller, PhD, Michael Boehler, MD^*, Philipp Lirk^*, Werner Lindinger, PhD, and Anton Amann, PhD^*

*Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Leopold-Franzens-University of Innsbruck, Austria; and Department of Ion Physics, Innsbruck University, Innsbruck, Austria

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Anton Amann, The Leopold-Franzens University of Innsbruck, Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Anichstrasse 35, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria. Address e-mail to anton.amann{at}uibk.ac.at

The subthreshold exposure to trace anesthetic gases is not associated with considerable risk of adverse health effects. Online control of ambient air exchange at the postoperative workplace may help in supervising air quality and lead to cost reduction. A proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometer system was used for online monitoring of volatile organic compounds, especially anesthetic gases. The mean exposure to sevoflurane and isoflurane at the urological postanesthesia care unit (PACU) was 15.9 and 9.5 parts per billion, respectively. Sevoflurane and isoflurane concentrations at the urological PACU showed a patient turnover-dependent burden during our investigation period. Because modern PACUs have a high ventilation capacity, the 24-h occupational burden by anesthetic gases at the PACU is relatively low. Monitoring and controlling of ambient air by automatic built-in alarm systems would be useful for quality control of the postoperative workplace. Moreover, energy costs of ventilation systems could be reduced by coupling ventilation capacity to the effective exposure.

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