10
Dräger developed the model “A”, Photo
by Dräger. History of Anesthesia Book at Dräger.
Fig 3.
Then 30 years later in 1952, the model
“Romulus” System Anesthetic machine was packed
together and manufactured as a trend for more gases, drawers, a manual ventilation system, and
smaller, lighter cylinders.11
In the 1970s, The Boston Anesthesia System
(BAS) developed and tested two major changes in
anesthesia machine design.7 It was the first anesthesia machine engineered by way of humanfactors studies, and the first with computer-based
operations. Some of the functions assisted or controlled by the computer include the electronic display, the flow of gas and liquid anesthetic,
the oxygen-to-anesthetic ratio, and the alarms, with programmable limits for breathing system pressure, anesthetic gas flow, oxygen concentration, and battery function. The BAS
was displayed at the 1976 annual meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists
(ASA), and received an ASA Scientific Exhibit Award.12 Although never commercially produced, the BAS prototype informed the development of anesthesia machines that came after it. Fully electronic anesthesia machines became commercially available in the late
1980s. (Fig 4)
Today, the introduction of advanced anesthesia systems such as, the GE Aisys Carestation with Et Control, the first anesthesia system to combine end tidal oxygen control and end
tidal agent control, original equipment manufacturers have met the American Society for
Testing and Materials (ASTM) ASTM F1850 - 00(2005) Standard Specification for Particular
Requirements for Anesthesia Workstations and Their Components and the Underwriters Laboratories of safety and design.
What does the future of Anesthesia hold? Perhaps, in the more distant future anesthesia
machines will operate faster, grow even smaller to include handheld machines, and become
less expensive devices that will use smart technology such as, artificial intelligence, black
box technology, etc. so that the devices will record and automatically correct bad human
factor designs on the fly resulting in a safer environment for our patients.