Every standard hospital should have certain essential equipment in its operating room or theater. From anesthesia machines to infusion pumps, suction pumps, and operating lights, these equipment and devices could make the difference between the success or otherwise of an operation.
Below are some of the vital devices required in a standard operating room.
Operating Table
An operating table is the table on which a patient lies during surgery. An ideal operating table should have the following requirements and properties:
The height must be adjustable.
You must be able to tilt it to the right or left.
Individual segments of the table must be adjustable.
The tabletop must be large and radiolucent.
The table’s padding must be radiolucent and soft.
Operating Lights
Operating or surgical lights assist the medical practitioners during surgery by illuminating a local body cavity or part of the patient. The surgical light also has the following requirements:
The light must be homogeneous and offer good lighting on a flat, deep, or narrow surface in a body cavity regardless of obstacles like the surgeons’ hands and heads.
The central illuminance must be between 40,000 and 160,000 lux.
The light field D50 diameter must be a minimum of 50% of D10.
The Ra (color rendering index) must be between 85 and 100.
Anesthesia Machine
An anesthesia machine generates and mixes a fresh gas flow of inhalation anesthetic compounds and medical gases to induce and maintain anesthesia. It generally works with patient monitors, breathing systems, mechanical ventilators, and suction equipment.
The machine is of two types: continuous-flow and intermittent-flow anesthesia machines. It is composed of;
Connections to medical air, nitrous oxide, and piped oxygen from gas cylinders or wall supplies
Regulators, pop-off valves, and pressure gauges
Flow meters and vaporizers
A high-flow oxygen flush
Patient monitoring systems
General-Purpose Suction Pump
A suction pump has several uses in medicine, and they all involve removing substances and fluid from the body. Medical practitioners use suction pumps to remove ingested toxins (stomach pumps), esophageal mucosal secretions, unwanted fat (liposuction), blood from a surgical field, and several other applications.
Suction uses negative pressure to permit the movement of substances and fluids. The suction device used in emergencies, called aspirators, differs from the one used in a surgery room. The surgery room uses suction machines with large vacuums.
Infusion Pumps
Infusion pumps are medical devices that deliver fluids like medications and nutrients in controlled proportions into the patient’s circulatory system. Medical practitioners use then intravenously and sometimes arterial, epidural and subcutaneous infusions.
There are two main classes of infusion pumps, large-volume pumps and small-volume pumps.
Large-volume pumps can infuse medications like antibiotics, fluid replacement like a saline solution, and nutrient solutions. Small-volume pumps infuse medicines like opiates or hormones like insulin.
Pulse Oximeter
Pulse oximeters are clip-on devices that indirectly monitor the oxygen saturation of patients’ blood and blood volume changes in the skin and then produce a photoplethysmogram (PPG) processed into further measurements.
Electrosurgical Device
An electrosurgical unit, also called Bovie, is a surgical device that surgeons use to destroy tissues by removing moisture, incising tissues, and controlling bleeding by clotting blood.
The device used a high-frequency and high-powered generator that creates a radiofrequency (RF) spark between the surgical site and probe, resulting in damage and localized heating to the tissue.
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