an oxygen tank is a pressurized metal container that holds oxygen in a gaseous form they are made
of seamless steel and are helpful in protecting storing and transporting oxygen for therapeutic
use however oxygen tanks are not equipped with a built-in clock that tells the user how much
longer the flow of oxygen will last therefore the duration of flow must be calculated in order
to know how long the tank will continue to put out oxygen and that is the topic of this video
in which we will show you how to easily perform that simple calculation so if you're ready let's
get into it in order to calculate the duration of an oxygen tank you must use the following you must
know the cylinder size cylinder pressure and the gas flow in general the larger the cylinder is in
size the more oxygen it will hold which means that it will last longer than smaller size cylinders
also the higher the gas flow the faster the tank will run out of oxygen so now let's talk about the
parameters that must be used in order to calculate how long an oxygen tank will last first we have
the cylinder size as just mentioned the size of the cylinder dictates the amount of oxygen that
can be stored inside of the tank the sizes are identified by letter designations including the
following you have the h g e d b a double d double b and double a tank sizes e through double a are
considered to be small cylinders and they are most commonly used during patient transport tank sizes
h through g are large cylinders and are better suited for stationary patients with that said
size e-cylinders are the most commonly used oxygen tanks especially in the hospital setting but next
is the cylinder pressure the pressure of an oxygen tank is directly proportional to the volume of
gas inside of the tank therefore the higher the pressure the more oxygen there is inside the tank
and vice versa the gas flow refers to the rate of which oxygen is being delivered to the patient
the higher the gas flow the faster the tank will run out of oxygen the duration of an oxygen tank
is inversely proportional to the gas flow so next you need to know the formula for estimating
oxygen tank duration now that we know the three main factors that dictate how long an oxygen
tank will last we can put them into a simple formula in order to calculate the iteration
the simple formula is as follows the duration in minutes is equal to the cylinder pressure
times the cylinder factor divided by the gas flow now we already mentioned the pressure and the flow
so now we need to talk about the cylinder factor the contents of an oxygen cylinder are specified
in cubic feet but they must be converted into liters therefore each tank size has a different
cylinder factor including the following d cylinder is 0.16 e cylinder is 0.28 g cylinder of 2.41
and an h cylinder of 3.14 if you know the cylinder factor size pressure and flow you can easily plug
the numbers into the formula to calculate how long the tank will continue to deliver oxygen
so let's do an example let's say you have an e-cylinder with a pressure of 2200 and
a flow rate of 2 liters per minute the duration of the oxygen tank can be calculated as follows
the duration in minutes is equal to 2200 times the cylinder factor which for an e-cylinder is 0.28
then you divide that number by the gas flow the patient is receiving
which in this case is 2 liters per minute this will equal 308 minutes which tells you
approximately how long this tank will continue to deliver oxygen at a rate of 2 liters per minute
however we can divide this number by 60 in order to convert minutes to hours
therefore this oxygen tank will last for approximately 5 hours and 8 minutes
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think you will enjoy and just a quick reminder we are not doctors this video is for informational
purposes only thank you so much for watching have a blessed day and as always real easy my friends