The Glostavent: an anaesthetic machine for difficult situations

The ideal anaesthetic machine for use in difficult situations is very different from the expensive and sophisticated machines currently used in many modern hospitals. Such a machine needs to be simple, reliable, robust, inexpensive, easily serviceable using local skills, versatile and, above all capable of functioning in the event of a breakdown in the supply of oxygen cylinders or electricity, circumstances which are only too common in many parts of the world and which have been responsible for numerous tragedies.