Association of anesthetic toxic isoflurane gases of the indoor air of operating room, Ahvaz, Iran during 2016

Abstract

Operating rooms (ORs) in hospital wards are very important because of special conditions of patients. The hazards of contact with low concentrations of anesthetic gases (AG) are undeniable. Nowadays AG isoflurane is one of the important pollutants which is in the air of ORs and used in anesthesia. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the level of anesthetic toxic isoflurane gases of the indoor air of Razi, Golestan and Emam educational hospitals ORs, using active sampling system during 2016. In this study, in order to sampling and detection of isoflurane concentration (ppm), a portable pump (SKC pump) and tubes (Sorbent Tube Tenax TA 250 mg) were utilized. The sampling was done in three different points of the ORs. According to this study, the “Razi” and “Emam” hospitals had the highest and the lowest isoflurane concentrations. According to the results of this study, isoflurane concentrations in three main educational hospital ORs affiliated to the Ahvaz Jundishapur University of medical sciences were 2.342, 2.15 and 2.04 ppm, respectively. According to this study, the average concentration of isoflurane in three main educational hospitals was more than recommended scales by international organizations (2 ppm) and it sounds that exposure to this amount of gas would be the cause of health disorders for staff. The results showed that the mean of isoflurane concentration in different parts of ORs with standard ventilation system was significantly lower than those ORs in which they did not have standard ventilation. While environmental health management and AG contamination in ORs have been ignored, they can cause disorders in ORs’ staffs and causing more spiritual and material costs.

• Isoflurane
• anesthetics
• operating room
• hospital
• Iran

Declaration of interest

Authors have no conflict of interests. The authors gratefully acknowledge AJUMS and the Environmental Technologies Research Center (ETRC) for financial support and providing necessary facilities to accomplish thus research with project number of ETRC-9303.