Study design. – Prospective clinical study.
Patients. – Adult ASA I or II patients scheduled for elective surgery under general anaesthesia.
Methods. – After preoxygenation during 3 min at 100%oxygen, patients were asked to breathe normally; the target end-tidal concentration of sevoflurane was fixed at 4%without priming of the circuit. Sufentanil (target concentration 0.5 ng/ml) was administered 40 s after.
Results. – Ten patients (48 ± 22 yrs) were included. Sevoflurane was detected in the circuit after 36 ± 5 s; the target end-tidal concentration of sevoflurane was obtained at 130 ± 19 s. Loss of consciousness was observed after 119 ± 7 s. The induction was achieved in all patients without any incident.
Conclusion. – This new anaesthesia system make available the induction of anaesthesia with sevoflurane without priming of the circuit.