Nitrous oxide/oxygen mixture

Usually various anesthetic agents are combined to increase efficacy and at the same time decrease toxicity and shorten the time to recovery. For example induction of anesthesia is obtained with an intravenous agent with a rapid onset of action like thiopentone and then anesthesia is maintained with a nitrous oxide/oxygen mixture in combination with halothane or a comparable volatile anesthetic. 

Because of its slow induction and recovery, irritant property and other disadvantages ether is rarely used these days and may be occasionally used as a supplement to nitrous oxide-oxygen mixture in children. 

Drug interactions. Addition of 50% nitrous oxide/ oxygen mixture to another inhalational anaesthetic... 

When gases are mixed in-line before filling (e.g., nitrous oxide/oxygen mixture) continuous analysis of the mixture being filled is required. 

Nitrous oxide decomposes into a mixture of nitrogen and oxygen at a temperature below that at which most substances burn. Hence when a glowing splinter is thrust into nitrous oxide a mixture is formed which is richer in oxygen than is the air, and combustion therefore proceeds more vigorously than in the air. Moreover nitrous oxide is an endothermic compound, that is it evolves heat upon decomposition, and the additional heat thus furnished still further increases the rate of combustion. 

Mivacurium chloride is a mixture of three stereoisomers, with the trans-trans (92-96%) and the cis-trans diesters being equipotent. The cis-cis diester produces only minimal (<5%) neuromuscular blockade. It is hydrophilic, has a small volume of distribution, and is distributed primarily to extracellular fluids. Mivacurium is short acting (Table 12.4), with mean elimination half-lives for the trans-trans and cis-trans stereoisomers of 2.0 and 1.8 minutes, respectively, in adults receiving opioid/nitrous oxide/oxygen anesthesia. It is rapidly hydrolyzed and does not undergo... 

Nitrous oxide produces respiratory depression (38,39). It has been shown to produce a direct myocardial depressant effect in dogs (40) and in humans breathing a 40% N2O/60% oxygen mixture (41) however, this may be offset by the activation of the sympathetic nervous system (42). The combination of nitrous oxide and opioids can produce decreases in myocardial contractiHty, heart rate, and blood pressure (43). 

Halothane (Fluothane) is a volatile liquid given by inhalation for induction and maintenance of anesthesia Induction and recovery from anesthesia are rapid, and the depth of anesthesia can be rapidly altered. Halothane does not irritate the respiratory tract, and an increase in tracheobronchial secretions usually does not occur. Halothane produces moderate muscle relaxation, but skeletal muscle relaxants may be used in certain types of surgeries. This anesthetic may be given with a mixture of nitrous oxide and oxygen. 

It has been observed that the ionization of atoms or molecules is comparatively very small in magnitude in combustion mixtures which essentially involve air as the oxidant and, therefore, may be ignored and neglected. Consequently, the substitution of air with either oxygen or nitrous oxide, however, gives rise to... 

Entonox is a 50% mixture of nitrous oxide and oxygen which remains gaseous under pressure unless the ambient temperature falls below -5.5°C. In these circumstances the contents may separate into liquid nitrous oxide and gaseous oxygen. In such a situation there is a risk that at the start high percentage concentrations of oxygen could be delivered followed by almost pure nitrous oxide. 

Vanpee (62) has studied the explosion of formaldehyde-oxygen mixtures. The dependence of explosion pressure upon temperature, vessel diameter, and the addition of inert diluent is in agreement with the thermal theory and consistent with studies of the slow reactions (54, 61). Typical of other reactions which have been reported to exhibit thermal explosion limits are the decomposition of nitrous oxide (75), the reaction between nitrous oxide and hydrogen (38), and cyanogen-air (32). 

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