A departmental audit of clinical use of N2O can be helpful on multiple fronts. It allows comparison between procurement and clinical use, with any discrepancies helping identify leaks within the N2O infrastructure. It also allows for understanding of N2O clinical use patterns within the department to help focus interventions to help reduce clinical use of…
Tag: kn2ow nitrous
Kn2oW Nitrous Steps
Climate change is a problem for us all to tackle. As the guardians of inhaled anaesthetics Anaesthetists have a major role to play in reducing health system emissions due to N2O. The Kn2oW Nitrous campaign hopes to empower people to take a closer look at N2O consumption in their hospital with the aim of reducing…
Leaks
Leaks are a major source of Nitrous Oxide emissions. Figure 1: Hole in nitrous oxide piping due to rub from an adjacent waste pipe. Leaks in ageing N2O manifold and pipeline infrastructure results in significant wastage of N2O into the atmosphere. The UK Nitrous Oxide Project, led by pharmacist Alifia Chakera, found that wastage via…
N2O Clinical Use Generic Survey
Below is a generic survey that assesses use and attitudes to N2O. Feel free to adapt to your own department. Demographics State: Service: Hospital: Consultant or trainee (What level are you if you are a trainee?): Amount used How many times in the last year have you used nitrous oxide? Never once 2-5 6-10 >10…
Anaesthetic Machine Reported Nitrous Usage
Interrogating Anaesthetic machine logs can give a clear picture of N2O usage by a given machine. The cumulative gas usage can be reset and then periodically reviewed to allow clear consumption data, per anaesthetic machine, for a given period. The way to detect N2O consumption from 2 popular anaesthetic machines is outlined below. GE Aysis…
Nitrous Oxide Pipeline Test Protocol
Several hospitals in Australia have demonstrated large leaks of nitrous oxide that were not detected by the routine inspections required by Section 6 of Australian Standard 2896:2021. As N2O is a schedule 4 drug and significant greenhouse gas, any such leakage is unacceptable. There are two ways to detect a leak: monitor pressure or weight…