Shackleton Department of Anaesthesia, Southampton General Hospital.
The function of scavenging equipment is to remove waste anaesthetic gases from the operating theatre and thus reduce the potentially harmful effects these agents may have on staff. However, these systems can pose a serious risk to patients which is not well recognised. We describe two cases where harm to patients could have occurred as a result of faulty or inappropriate equipment being used and inadequate checking of scavenging systems.