General Anaesthesia Technology module (BE52001)

The aim of this module is to give students with a full overview of medical devices and technology used for anaesthesia in areas such as Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), High Dependency Unit (HDU), Operating Rooms (OR), and Respiratory therapy. The course will focus on design, functionality, tests, service and maintenance, quality assurance and evaluation of technology used in this setting. As well as a set of hands-on laboratory experiments tailored to clinical applications for a better understanding of medical and test equipment used by Biomedical Engineers in anaesthesia.

Through this study, students should be able to:

• demonstrate a knowledge of key parameters in the assessment and the care of patient in Operating Rooms using anaesthesia
• demonstrate an understanding of basic principles of sensing, recording, data processing and information analysis
• demonstrate an understanding of the general health and safety issues of anaesthesia equipment.

Topics include:

• The introduction to general anaesthesia
• Medical Gases, Anaesthetic machines, ventilators, CPAP, BiPAP, EEG, Patient monitoring and CO2 Monitoring, Infusion devices and drug used in anaesthesia, Suction units, defibrillators and ancillary devices.
• Clinical applications and end users
• Respiratory gas flow
• Ethical Standards and risk management