Efficiency of suction pumps for the emergency medicine setting.

Suction pumps form an important part of the equipment for field treatment of emergency patients (ECRI, 1979; Silverton, 1980; Rossi, 1983; Dick, 1985). Basically, a distinction must be made between devices that are mechanically driven (handor pedal-operated) or driven by external energy, i.e. electrically or pneumatically. The advantage of the latter is that they are not depending on any exhaustible power sources (batteries, gas cylinders). Their shortcoming is that the energy needed is often considerable, and the operation (e.g. in difficult external conditions) often requires a second helper. It is possible to lay down a number of basic demands (Ahnefeld et al., 1979; Thiemens, 1980; Schaffer et al., 1982; Rossi et al., 1988) to be fulfilled to assure suitability for practical use (Table 1).