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Helium is a low-density, inert, monoatomic gas that is widely used in medical applications. In respiratory care, Helium is mainly used as an adjunct therapy for patients with severe upper airway obstruction and asthma. To better understand the action mechanism of helium, the physical properties of several therapeutic gas mixtures with helium are calculated using kinetic theory. Flow in a simplified lung airways model is also shown to support the discussion of helium’s respiratory benefits, including reduced work of breathing.

Objective: To characterize compliance with good practices in medical gas management in federal teaching hospitals in Brazil. Methods: A cross-sectional survey-type study, designed to perform a situational diagnosis of the pharmacy services in 40 federal teaching hospitals in Brazil linked to the Brazilian Hospital Services Company, with respect to compliance with good practices in gas management, through the application of the ABPGasMed 1.0 instrument. This instrument consists of 54 compliance standards divided into two sections (structure and process). The characterization of research participants and hospitals, and the classification of hospitals in terms of performance categories were expressed as absolute and relative values. Chi-square tests of independence were performed to investigate the association between the hospital’s performance category and the hospital’s geographic region and size. Results: In total, 87.5% of the invited hospitals participated in the study, and only 27.59% of the hospitals had a pharmacist responsible for medicinal gases. Pharmacovigilance was performed by pharmacists in 20.59% of the hospitals. Analyzing the hospitals by region of the country and size, statistically significant associations were found between the general classification of hospitals and the geographic region (x2(8)=18.936, p= 0.015), as well as the classification of the hospital and structure and size (x2(9)= 20.373, p= 0.016). Analyses of the adjusted standardized residues returned an association between the southeastern region and the satisfactory performance category when analyzing the entire instrument, and between the excellent performance category in the structure section and size of a small hospital. Conclusion: In most of the hospitals studied, management of medicinal gases did not show the desired performance, which indicates the need to comply with current healthcare legislations and improve the provided services. It is believed that compliance rates may evolve training of healthcare team members, with an emphasis on the pharmacist.

Objectives: Ambulatory oxygen therapy is sometimes needed when transferring inpatients. The prescribed administration rate must be maintained during the entire transit time. This implies that paramedical staff calculates the volume of gas remaining in the cylinder, based on the residual pressure displayed on the oxygen cylinders. This step carries a risk of errors and wastage. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of a digital autonomy display system on the use of oxygen cylinders at the hospital.

The anaesthesia gas supply system is designed to provide a safe, cost-effective and convenient system for the delivery of medical gases at the point of-use. The doctrine of the anaesthesia gas supply system is based on four essential principles: Identity, continuity, adequacy and quality. Knowledge about gas supply system is an integral component of safe anaesthetic practice. Mishaps involving the malfunction or misuse of medical gas supply to operating theatres have cost many lives. The medical gases used in anaesthesia and intensive care are oxygen, nitrous oxide, medical air, entonox, carbon dioxide and heliox. Oxygen is one of the most widely used gases for life-support and respiratory therapy besides anaesthetic procedures. In this article, an effort is made to describe the production, storage and delivery of anaesthetic gases. The design of anaesthesia equipment must take into account the local conditions such as climate, demand and power supply. The operational policy of the gas supply system should have a backup plan to cater to the emergency need of the hospital, in the event of the loss of the primary source of supply.