BMC anesthesiology
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Fresh gas decoupling is a feature of the modern anesthesia workstation, where the fresh gas flow (FGF) is diverted into the reservoir bag and is not added to the delivered tidal volume, which thus remains constant. The present study aimed to investigate the entraining of the atmospheric air into the anesthesia breathing circuit in case the reservoir bag was disconnected. ⋯ During the disconnection of the anesthesia reservoir bag, the process of pharmacokinetics takes place faster compared to the wash-in and wash-out pharmacokinetic properties in the circle breathing system. The time constant was affected by the FGF rate, as well as the gradient of anesthetic gases between the anesthesia circle system and atmospheric air.