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Anaesthesiology

Electrical safety

Built from Al-Shaikh — Essentials of Equipment in Anaesthesia, Critical Care and Peri-operative Medicine, 6e

The first 25 slides of Electrical safety
The first 25 slides, exactly as they appear. The full deck has 83 content slides.

What’s inside

7 sections · 83 slides

  1. 01

    Overview

    • What this deck will teach you

    1 slide

  2. 02

    Electricity and the mains supply

    • Where the electricity comes from
    • Live, neutral and earth — the three wires

    2 slides

  3. 03

    Principles of electricity

    • Common circuit-component symbols
    • Electric current (I) — the flow of electrons
    • Two kinds of current: DC vs AC
    • Voltage, resistance and Ohm's law
    • Impedance (Z) and reactance (X)
    • Storing charge and making magnetism

    6 slides

  4. 04

    Classifying medical equipment

    International standard IEC 60601

    • Why classify — and the single-fault idea
    • Class I — earthed equipment
    • Protective-earth symbol
    • Class II — double-insulated equipment
    • Class II double-insulated symbol
    • Class III — safety extra-low voltage (SELV)
    • Class III equipment symbol
    • The three equipment classes at a glance
    • Types B, BF and CF — protecting the patient
    • Type B — low leakage, but not for the heart
    • Type B applied-part symbol
    • Type B defibrillation-proof symbol
    • Type BF — an isolated (floating) applied part
    • Type BF applied-part symbol
    • Type BF defibrillation-proof symbol
    • Type CF — safe for direct heart connection
    • Type CF applied-part symbol
    • Type CF defibrillation-proof symbol
    • Types B / BF / CF — leakage and heart safety
    • Attention — consult the accompanying documents
    • Attention / consult-documents symbol
    • High-voltage and electrocution warning labels
    • Protective earth vs functional earth
    • Protective-earth terminal symbol
    • Functional-earth symbol
    • Extra earthing and equipotentiality
    • Additional protective-earth symbol
    • Equipotentiality symbol
    • Isolated (floating) circuits
    • Earth-leakage circuit breakers (COELCB)
    • Water ingress and anaesthetic-proof equipment
    • Drip-, splash- and water-proof symbol
    • Anaesthetic-proof (AP) equipment symbol
    • Anaesthetic-proof category G symbol
    • Conformity marks: CE and UKCA
    • CE conformity mark
    • UKCA conformity mark
    • Maintenance checks

    38 slides

  5. 05

    Hazards of electric shock

    • How an electric shock happens
    • Frequency matters — why 50 Hz is so dangerous
    • Impedance, skin resistance and current density
    • Macroshock vs microshock
    • Macroshock vs microshock: a 1000-fold difference
    • Effects of electrocution by current (50 Hz)
    • Two ways electricity injures tissue
    • What determines how severe a shock is
    • How the body joins a circuit
    • Reducing the risk of electrocution

    10 slides

  6. 06

    Surgical diathermy

    • What diathermy is and why it uses high frequency
    • Surgical diathermy circuit
    • Components of a diathermy circuit
    • How the heat is generated — current density
    • Why diathermy does not fibrillate the heart
    • Cutting vs coagulation waveforms
    • Monopolar vs bipolar diathermy
    • Diathermy: problems and safety features
    • Why is an isolating capacitor used in a diathermy circuit?

    9 slides

  7. 07

    Static electricity and lasers

    • Static electricity in theatre
    • Lasers — what the word means and how they work
    • Types of laser
    • Laser hazards and safety
    • Laser safety classes
    • Airway laser surgery — fire risk and the drill
    • Key takeaways
    • Type CF equipment can be safely connected directly to the heart — why?
    • References
    • Essentials of Equipment in Anaesthesia, Critical Care, and Perioperative Medicine

    10 slides