Electromedical equipment

Laks M.M., Arzbaecher R., Geselowitz D., Bailey J.J., and Berson A. Revisiting the question will relaxing safe current limits for electromedical equipment increase hazards to patients Circulation 102 823-825,2000. 

Special safety precautions are taken for electromedical equipment and its use in the patient environment and in physical contact with the patient. Safety is regulated by international standards such as (lEC-60601 2005) used in Table 10.2. 

Yellow/green wire in an electrical power cable connected to the ground (earth) of the building where electromedical equipment is used. It serves two purposes one increases electrical safety and the other reduces noise. It is not supposed to be current-carrying in a fault-free system. Often (wrongly) used synonymous with the reference wire of the preamplifier. Antonym not grounded = floating. 

Special safety precautions are taken for electromedical equipment. Both patient and operator safety is considered (as well as damage of property). Electromedical equipment is equipment situated in the patient environment and is in physical contact with the patient, or which can deliver energy (electrical, mechanical, or radiation) to the patient from a distance. Equipment for in vitro diagnosis is also important for patient safety with respect to correct diagnostic answers, but as long as it is not in the patient environment, the safety aspects are different. 

Loivisto, E., Safety Aspects in the Standardization of Electromedical Equipment, Proceedings of the Annual International Conference on Biomedical Transducers, 1975, pp. 457-462. 

Levin, M. (1994) Safe current limits for electromedical equipment and hazards to patients, J. Am. Heart Ass., Circulation, 2160. 

An electromedical device may have more than one applied part, Figure 10.37. The producer must basically declare the intended use of his or her equipment. If an applied part is intended to he used in direct connection with the heart, it must he of type CF. The same instrument may have another applied part intended to he used with skin surface electrodes or sensors. That applied part may he of type B, BF, or CF. A plug in the instrument may he marked with type B, hut a hox with a galvanic separation may he inserted in the cahle so that the applied part is converted from type B to BF or CF... 

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