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What are Medical Gases? What Medical Gases are Used in a Hospital?

By: Guangzhou C&H Medical Technology Co., Ltd. * Engineering Team
August 07, 2020



In the broad sense, medical gases includes Oxygen, Vacuum, Medical Air, Surgical Air, Nitrous Oxide, AGSS, Carbon Dioxide, Nitrogen, Helium, Mixing Oxygen & Air, Mixing Nitrous Oxide & Air, etc.
Medical Gases are used in all different scales hospitals.
Years ago, the medical gases were contained in sole gas cylinders and to be supplied to patients or medical gas equipment directly from cylinders. Now, in a modern hospital, the gases are more commonly supplied by Medical Gas Pipeline System.
However, for a hospital, usually, not all these different medical gases pipeline system is necessary. Most hospitals contructed the Medical Gas Pipeline System of only several kinds of these gases. Here, we introduce some commonly used medical gases in a hospital, and illustrate their main functions for medical purpose.

1. Oxygen / O₂
Oxygen is mainly used for patients respiration in Operating Rooms, Intensive Care Units / ICU, Emergency Rooms, Wards / Patient Rooms.
Oxygen supplying piping / Oxygen pipeline is necessary for all medical organizations. Some small scale hospitals / clinics construct only Oxygen pipeline system in their buildings.

2. Vacuum
Strictly speaking, Vacuum is not a kind of gas, it is the negative pressure (pressure lower than standard atmospheric pressure). By such negative pressure supplying, medical staff can suction liquid from patient body.
However, for Medical Gas Pipeline System, usually users take it same as one kind of medical gases.
Vacuum is also widely used in all medical organization rooms, including in Operating Room, ICU, Emergency Rooms, Wards, etc.
Some small scale hospitals / clinics do not construct Vacuum supplying piping / Vacuum pipeline system in their buildings. However, for more users, they construct medical gas pipeline system of only 2 gases: Oxygen and Vacuum.

3. Medical Air
In essence, Medical Air is a kind of compressed air. However, for medical using, it must meet some special technical requirements, such as pressure (0.4MPa / 4.0Bar) and cleanliness (of particles, moisture, etc.). In many countries, users are used to mark it as MA-4.
Main function of Medical Air is for assisted respiration. Such as for Oxygen toxicity sensitive patients, Medical Air is used to replace Oxygen to lower their Oxygen exposure. Medical Air is also used during anesthesia as a substitute for Nitrous Oxide (N₂O) to reduce the high concentration of Oxygen exposure.
So, usually Medical Air is supplied to patients by Medical Ventilators or by Anesthesia Work Stations. And it is mainly used in Operating Rooms, ICU, Emergency Rooms, Recovery Rooms, etc. Seldom hospitals / clinics supply medical air to general wards / patients rooms.
Medical Air is used widely in medical organizations, too. Some hospitals / clinics do not construct Vacuum Pipeline System in their building but do it of Medical Air.

4. Surgical Air
Surgical Air is a kind of compressed air, too. Same as Medical Air, it must meet some special technical requirements, such as pressure (0.7MPa / 7.0Bar) and cleanliness (of particles, moisture, etc.). Different from Medical Air, users are used to mark it as MA-7.
Surgical Air can support multiple medical applications including driving surgical tools, operating pneumatic brakes and tables, central sterile supply, and laboratory air.
Usually, in a medical organization, both Medical Air (compressed air at 0.4MPa / 4Bar pressure, MA-4) and Surgical Air (compressed air at 0.7MPa / 7Bar pressure, MA-7) are produced by air compressors system. And they are able to be produced by one source equipment. So, as the common situation, a big scale hospital equipped Medical Air pipeline system usually equips the Surgical Air pipeline system as well.
However, now more and more pneumatic (surgical air driving) medical equipment is replaced by electrical ones. So, in some smaller scale hospitals, there is Medical Air pipeline system but no Surgical Air pipeline system. Surgical Air is not as widely used as Medical Air.

5. Nitrous Oxide / N₂O
Nitrous Oxide, its’ better known name is laughing gas, is the most commonly used inhalation anesthetic in modern medical organizations. Such as in a hospital, it is used in dentistry and in emergency rooms and ambulatory surgery rooms as well. When used alone, it is incapable of producing general anesthesia reliably, but it may be combined with other inhalation and / or intravenous agents in deep sedative / general anesthestic technique.
Because of its’ function, we can suppose that consumption of Nitrous Oxide in most medical organization is not big. For a not big consuption user, they can use Nitrous Oxide gas in a sole cylinder, to construct the Nitrous Oxide pipeline system is not necessary. So, most small and medium scale hospital / clinic do not construct the Nitrous Oxide pipeline system in their buildings.

6. Anaesthetic Gas Scavenging System / AGSS
From the name we can get to know that the AGSS is not a kind of gas. However, the system has same structure and parts of other medical gases pipeline system, usually users treat it as one kind of medical gases.
AGSS is a active system to remove anaesthetic gas from anaesthetic equipment avoid it spreading in rooms. So usually, AGSS comes with Nitrous Oxide pipeline system. In many countries, to construct the AGSS in the building with Nitrous Oxide pipeline system is mandatory.

7. Carbon Dioxide / CO₂
Dry Ice is solid form of Carbon Dioxide. However, when we talking about Carbon Dioxide of Medical Gas Pipeline System, we mention Carbon Dioxide gas only, dry ice is not included.
Carbon Oxide gas can be used as the insufflating gas for minimal invasive surgery, such as endoscopy, laparoscopy, and arthroscopy, to enlarge body cavities for better visible surgical field. Also, it is used for transient respiratory stimulation. In some special situations, it is used to mix with anesthetic and Oxygen for anesthesia.
Anyway, in most medical organizations, consumption of Carbon Dioxide gas is even less than Nitrous Oxide. And the gas pipeline system of Carbon Dioxide is not widely used, either.

8. Nitrogen / N₂
Same as what we do for Carbon Dioxide, when talking about Nitrogen pipeline system, we mention the Nitrogen gas only, do not include cryogenic Nitrogen liquid.
In the early days, compressed Nitrogen gas was used to drive pneumatic medical equipment. Now, this function is replacing by Surgical Air.
In the medical organizations, now, Nitrogen gas is mainly used to mix with other medical gases for some special using. Also, in laboratories, it is used for anaerobic culture.
In most medical organizations, Nitrous pipeline system is even less used than the Carbon Dioxide pipeline system.

9. Other Medical Gases
Here, we mention the other medical gases include Helium Gas, special mixing gases, etc.
For most medical organizations, they are not or only small quantity needed. So, medical gas pipeline systems of these gases are not commonly used, either.