Patent ID: 8752544
Filing Date: 2014-06-17
Classification: A61M,G01F

Abstract:
1. An anesthetic vaporizer, comprising: a first sensor, in communication with an inlet conduit that is configured upstream from the anesthetic vaporizer to deliver a flow of carrier gas to the anesthetic vaporizer, wherein the first sensor produces a first sensor signal indicative of a composition of the carrier gas in the inlet conduit; a second sensor, in communication with an outlet conduit that is configured downstream from the anesthetic vaporizer to deliver a flow of combined carrier gas and anesthetic from the anesthetic vaporizer, wherein the second sensor produces a second sensor signal indicative of a composition of the combined carrier gas and anesthetic added by the vaporizer; a third sensor, in communication with the inlet conduit, wherein the third sensor produces a third sensor signal indicative of the composition of the carrier gas in the inlet conduit; a fourth sensor, in communication with the outlet conduit, wherein the fourth sensor produces a fourth sensor signal indicative of the composition of the combined carrier gas and anesthetic added by the vaporizer; and a controller that receives the first, second, third and fourth sensor signals, computes a first anesthetic output with the first sensor signal and the second sensor signal, and further computes a second anesthetic output with the third sensor signal and the fourth sensor signal, wherein the first, second, third and fourth sensors are ultrasonic time-of-flight sensors, the first and third sensor signals are indicative of acoustic time-of-flight across the inlet conduit, and the second and fourth sensor signals are indicative of acoustic time-of-flight across the outlet conduit.