A Look at Low-Flow Anesthesia Decision-Support Tools

As reported in our Evaluations of anesthesia units, low-flow anesthesia decision-support tools are an advantageous feature that can benefit both the patient and the healthcare organization. While our Evaluations explain the basics of these tools' function and benefit, there's a lot more to know about them, including certain limitations.

This article takes an in-depth look at the use of low-flow anesthesia and decision-support tools. Learn about low-flow anesthesia, including its benefits and limitations, and find out about the specific decision-support tools available with the anesthesia units we've evaluated, including how each one operates, plus their advantages and disadvantages as identified during our assessment and testing.

1. The generally accepted definition of low-flow anesthesia is total fresh gas flow of no more than 1 L/min.

2. Some experts also refer to minimal-flow anesthesia, which usually means...