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The Dräger Vapor turns 50
Day after day it saves lifes. Since fifty years. But no rescued person knows it. Only the anesthesist and the surgery team. For more than half a century Dräger Vapor® liquid-anesthetic supports them in enabling patients to remain unconscious and pain free during surgery.
Anesthesia with the Dräger “Kombinations-Narkoseapparat” around 1911.
A look backward
Anesthesia administration was not always as precise. But with new technologies and alternative liquid anesthetics emerged in the mid 20th century and soon the demand for a new precise dosing technique emerged. In 1958 Dräger came out with the Vapor, a calibrated dosing device that is attached to the anesthesia device and through which fresh gas is supplied. The Vapor adds the anesthesia dosage and concentration defined and set by the anesthetist to the fresh gas. Although the dosing (bypass) mechanism used by the Vapor has changed very little, the device’s technology is continuously optimized.
Dräger Vapor 2000: different types of liquid anesthetics and each needs its own Vapor.
One of the most outstanding features of the Dräger Vapor is that it never has to be recalibrated. Thus Vapor users can rest assured that the device will always deliver the exact dose defined by the anesthetist. The special stainless steel and brass alloys used in the Vapor allow for a long service life, resistance to alteration, and pressure and temperature compensation. Other features of the Vapor include its bypass mechanism, which is adjusted down to the micrometer level, and the fact that the dosage area is free of aluminum, which might react with the anesthetic.
The Vapor is transportable and can be refilled using standard bottles
Five main types of liquid anesthetics are utilized today: sevoflurane, desflurane, enflurane, halothane and isoflurane. Although these substances are used various ways according to clinical indication, each needs its own Vapor. This means that the vaporizer must be moved from place to place within the hospital in a sealed state. To this end, the Dräger Vapor integrates a patented transport setting using a handwheel and that hermetically seals the vaporizer – before it had to be emptied every time. Even if only a minute of anesthetic remains in the Vapor, the vaporizer’s 300 ml tank accommodates standard 250 ml refills, thus virtually eliminating wastage. 
Today´s working environment of the anesthetist.
The Dräger Vapor can be used in conjunction with a Fabius MRI anesthesia unit if as patient must be sedated for an MRT scan. The Vapor is interoperable with 1.5 and 3 tesla MRT systems.
The Vapor output remains stable within physician-defined anesthesia dosage at temperatures ranging from 10 to 40 °C. This is particularly important for bone surgery, where an OR temperature of 15 °C is maintained, or for surgery on burn victims, for which the OR temperature must be raised.
In addition to anesthesia applications, the Vapor is also used by pharmaceutical companies to market their anesthetics, as well as by other anesthesia device vendors.
For more information, visit www.draeger.com
This article was published on 06/23/2008