A cause of electrosurgical burns in surgical procedures is faulty active leads. A survey of faults and modes of failures are reported. The design of a meter is given for use by a sterilizing department to enable leads to be checked. Using the criterion of two times the original resistance, 35 cables were found to be defective out of a population of about 200 cables. About half of these cables transmitted radio frequency (RF) power inefficiently: often power was intermittent and hot spots would develop. The commonest mode of failure was a break between the socket and the wire at the forceps end. Rejection criteria are reviewed and we suggest a resistance less than 0.3 omega.

The provision of intensive-care facilities for patients in transit can present problems. We describe our novel approach to these in which we have added facilities to a standard bed which is used for the transfer of patients. This may also be a cost-effective method of providing intensive-care equipment to beds at any location.