A Practical, Low-Cost Xenon Anesthesia Circuit

氙气是一种非常有吸引力的麻醉剂，因为它对心血管系统的影响最小，缺乏新陈代谢，并且快速诱导和出现。然而，氙很少使用，因为与普通吸入麻醉剂相比其成本高。这种应用的长期目标是使氙麻醉能够以低成本广泛使用。具体目标是开发一种用于氙麻醉的实用呼吸机，该呼吸机在闭路再呼吸模式下运行，以最大限度地减少氙气到大气中的损失：氙气是拟议麻醉气体的关键组分，独立于任何额外的吸入麻醉剂或其他气体。目前缺乏精确、可靠和成本有效的氙浓度传感器使得很难控制回路中的氙浓度，并且是广泛使用氙麻醉的主要障碍。第一阶段通过（1）展示新型氙气传感器的关键方面，以及（2）为将包含氙气浓度传感器的闭环氙气麻醉机提供概念设计，证明了可行性。拟议的商业应用：氙麻醉在三个广泛的应用方面是有吸引力的：（1）氙气将潜在地成为美国每年对心血管疾病患者进行的外科手术的大部分选择的麻醉剂;（2）由于氙麻醉引起心肌抑制等并发症少，诱导和苏醒快，可减少患者住院时间，对卫生保健成本有很大的益处;和（3）氙可以与其它麻醉剂组合使用以降低它们的浓度并因此降低它们的副作用。拟议的研究将导致一个实用的设备，将提供低成本使用氙作为麻醉剂，并使这种麻醉技术的广泛应用。

Xenon gas is a very attractive anesthetic agent because of its minimal effects on the cardiovascular system, lack of metabolism, and rapid induction and emergence. However, xenon is used only rarely because of its high cost compared to common inhaled anesthetic agents. The long- term objective of this application is to make xenon anesthesia available for widespread use at low cost. The specific aim is to develop a practical ventilator for xenon anesthesia that operates in a closed-circuit, rebreathing mode to minimize the loss of xenon gas to the atmosphere: A key component of the proposed anesthesia gas, independent of any additional inhaled anesthetics or other gases that are present. The present lack of an accurate, reliable, and cost-effective xenon concentration sensor makes it very difficult to control the xenon concentration in the circuit and is a major obstacle to widespread use of xenon anesthesia. Phase I proves feasibility by (1) demonstrating the key aspects of the novel xenon gas sensor, and (2) producing a conceptual design for a closed-loop xenon anesthesia machine that will incorporate the xenon gas concentration sensor. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS: Xenon anesthesia is attractive for three broad applications: (1) xenon gas will potentially be the anesthetic agent of choice for a large fraction for the surgical procedures performed each year in the United States on patients with cardiovascular conditions; (2) because of fewer complications such as myocardial depression and rapid induction and emergence, xenon anesthesia can reduce the time patients spend in the hospital, with large benefits to health care costs; and (3) xenon can be used in combination with other anesthetics to reduce their concentration and consequently their side effects. The proposed research will lead to a practical device that will provide for the low-cost use of xenon as an anesthetic agent and enable widespread application of this anesthetic technique.