Drawover anesthesia. A review of equipment, capabilities, and utility under austere conditions.

Anesthesia care may be required under austere conditions during military operations and natural disasters. Drawover anesthesia devices that provide inhalational anesthetic agents in air or an air/oxygen mixture are useful in these circumstances. This equipment must be portable, rugged, lightweight, and capable of functioning with an absolute requirement for compressed gas supplies. The historical experience, available equipment and literature on this subject are reviewed.