Blackstone HS-01D

The value of this anaesthetic machine depends almost entirely on one unanswered question. If air is plumbed to the fifth tube, it becomes the only Blackstone machine below the HS-850 that can deliver oxygen and air anaesthesia, opening it to every department avoiding nitrous oxide, which is a growing number. If air is not fitted, it inherits the same restriction as the HS-820 and the HS-01B, and every diluted mixture must use nitrous oxide.

What this anaesthetic machine does publish unambiguously is the breathing rate, and it is welcome. A span of 1 to 99 per minute covers everything from a slow adult rate through to what a small child requires, and having the figure printed rather than absent lets a department check the machine against its practice. Across four previous Blackstone sheets, that figure was missing altogether, so its appearance here marks a real step forward in what the manufacturer chooses to disclose.

The limitations carried over are the familiar ones. Six modes without PEEP puts this anaesthetic machine behind both the HS-820 and the HS-850 on ventilation, and PEEP is applied as routine in modern practice rather than kept in reserve. Delivered volume from 50 ml keeps infant work outside the published range, despite a breathing rate figure that would otherwise suit it perfectly well. Capnography is unmentioned again, exactly as on the four sheets before it.

Medigear.uk establishes the air supply, the PEEP position and the capnography arrangement before either variant reaches a theatre.

A Breathing Rate Actually Published

One to 99 per minute is printed here and nowhere else on the Blackstone sheets, letting a department check the machine against its own practice rather than ask.

The Largest Screen Below the Top Model

A 10.4-inch panel is otherwise reserved for the HS-850, so you read settings and monitoring at a distance rather than at arm's length.

Five Tubes on the Gas Block

Whatever the fifth tube serves, the block is larger than the four-tube arrangement used on the HS-820 and the HS-01B pair.

Choice of One or Two Vaporisers

A department settled on a single agent takes the standard variant, while one alternating agent takes the advanced, on an otherwise identical machine.

A Conventional Inspiratory Band

Four to one down to one to ten is the span an anaesthetic ventilator should provide, printed consistently across this family.

Bagging Remains Available

Hand ventilation appears in the mode list beside the automatic choices, exactly as any anaesthetist would expect.

Wide Delivered Volume

Fifty millilitres through to 1500 covers the adult range comfortably, whatever the llower-end limitation

Monitor Available Alongside

A patient monitor may be ordered with either variant, which counts given how little the machine integrates by itself.

Screen of 10.4 inches

On both variants, matching the top HS-850.

Integral Ventilator

Built into the machine.

Six Modes Provided

From assist control and IPPV across to SIPPV, IMV, SIMV and bagging.

PEEP Not Among Them

Matching both HS-01B forms.

Breathing Rate 1 to 99 bpm

The only rate range published across this range.

Volume of 50 to 1500 mL

In common with the HS-820 and the HS-01B pair.

Inspiratory Band 4:1 to 1:10

Consistent across the Blackstone family.

Five Flowmeter Tubes

With only two gases listed.

One or Two Vaporisers

Standard and advanced variants respectively.

Optional Halothane Vaporiser

Supplied apart from the machine.

Optional Patient Monitor

Available with either variant.

No Conformity Marking Shown

Absent here, as across the Blackstone sheets.

One arithmetic detail governs this anaesthetic machine. Five flowmeter tubes are printed against two named gases, and nowhere else in the Blackstone range does that pattern occur: four tubes serve two gases, five serve three including air. If air is fitted and merely left off the list, this becomes the only machine below the HS-850 capable of oxygen and air anaesthesia, which would matter a great deal to any department avoiding nitrous oxide. If it is not, a tube is unaccounted for. That question comes first. Beyond it, the sheet gives a breathing rate of 1 to 99 per minute, the only such figure Blackstone publishes anywhere, and pairs the largest screen below the top model with the shortest mode list in the family. PEEP, capnography, an oxygen monitor, the hypoxic interlock and any conformity marking are all still unresolved. Medigear.uk settles them before quoting this anaesthetic machine.