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很小，缺乏代谢，快速诱导和出现。然而，氙气很少被使用，因为与普通的吸入麻醉剂相比，它的成本很高。这项应用的长期目标是使氙气麻醉以低成本广泛使用。具体目标是开发一种实用的氙气麻醉呼吸机，该呼吸机以闭路再呼吸模式运行，以尽量减少氙气向大气中的损失：氙气是拟议麻醉气体的关键组成部分，独立于任何额外的吸入麻醉剂或其他存在的气体。目前缺乏一种准确、可靠、经济的氙气浓度传感器，使得控制电路中的氙气浓度非常困难，这是氙气麻醉广泛应用的主要障碍。第一阶段通过(1)展示新型氙气传感器的关键方面，以及(2)为包含氙气浓度传感器的闭环氙气麻醉机提供概念设计来证明可行性。建议的商业应用：氙气麻醉在三个广泛的应用方面具有吸引力：(1)在美国，每年有很大一部分心血管疾病患者进行的外科手术中，氙气将有可能成为首选的麻醉剂；(2)氙气麻醉由于心肌抑制等并发症较少，诱导和急救迅速，可减少患者住院时间，对医疗费用有较大的好处；(3)氙气可以与其他麻醉剂联合使用，以减少其浓度，从而减少其副作用。提出的研究将导致一种实用的装置，将提供低成本使用氙气作为麻醉剂，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.