UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency tightens policy on breathing systems provision:
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
A number of serious incidents involving the entrapment of anaesthetic breathing systems have led the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to demand that back-up oxygen supply equipment be available at all times. A device alert issued on November 7 calls for the immediate introduction of measures that were already set out last year in guidelines issued by the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland. The MHRA cites reports of three separate incidents, of which one resulted in the death of the patient and another which caused hypoxic brain damage.