Scavenged anesthetic sensor and method for sensing scavenged anesthetics in an airflow

Abstract

An anesthetic gas sensor including: a measurement cell; an inlet for receiving a sample to be tested; an outlet for releasing the sample; an infrared (IR) emitter; an IR detector to receive IR light from the IR emitter and determine an amount of IR light received through the measurement cell; and a processor to determine a concentration of anesthetic gas in the sample based on the amount of infrared light received versus the amount of infrared light received in a control sample. A method of sensing scavenged anesthetic gas in a scavenged gas flow, the method including: collecting a sample of the gas flow; passing infrared (IR) light through the sample; determining an amount of infrared light received through the sample; and determining a concentration of anesthetic in the sample. The gas sensor and method are intended to detect concentrations of 50 ppm of anesthetic gas or less.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.