Surgical and Anesthesia Pendant Roles: How to Divide the Work

What each pendant is for

The anaesthesia pendant sits at the head end of the table. It supports the anaesthesia machine or its connections, patient monitoring, infusion devices and the gases the anaesthetist needs: oxygen, medical air, nitrous oxide where used, vacuum and anaesthetic gas scavenging. It also needs a generous number of electrical sockets, because anaesthesia kit is dense and often connected for the whole case.

The surgeon pendant, often called the pendant surgeon side unit, sits near the operative field or foot end. It carries what the surgical team uses actively: electrosurgical generators, suction, insufflators, drive-gas outlets for surgical tools, and shelves for towers or devices. Placement varies with specialty, so always plan it from the procedure list rather than from a standard drawing.

Which side of the table and why

An OR pendant layout begins with the table position and the main surgeon positions. Anaesthesia occupies the head end because the anaesthetist must reach the airway, so the pendant is placed to keep gas lines short and out of the sterile zone. The surgical pendant is placed on the side or foot where equipment is controlled by the scrub nurse or circulating team, and where it does not interfere with the lights.

Consider swing paths. An arm that reaches across the table, or a pendant whose arm cuts through laminar-flow boundaries, creates contamination and collision risks; see ceiling airflow and pendants. Lojer's Solido pendants can be configured as surgical or anaesthesia pendants for operating rooms, so a single product family can serve both positions with a consistent look and cleaning method.

Splitting outlets between the two

A practical split puts all anaesthesia gases and anaesthesia-related electrical outlets on the head-end unit, and surgical consumables, surgical suction and high-power surgical sockets on the surgeon unit. Do not rely on a single pendant for everything, because the arm load, the number of outlets and the cable count all grow quickly.

Check each pendant's electrical limits. Solido specifies a supply voltage of 100-230 VAC at 50/60 Hz and up to 2000 W per socket, with IP20 protection. Add up realistic simultaneous loads, not nameplate peaks, and discuss them with the electrical engineer, bearing in mind IEC 60601-1 and the hospital's own medical-IT rules.

• Head-end pendant: oxygen, air, vacuum, scavenging, monitors, infusion pumps, many sockets
• Surgeon pendant: suction, surgical drive gas, electrosurgery sockets, shelves for towers
• Both: equipotential bonding connection, data points and clear labelling of each outlet

Arm types and modularity

MZ Liberec's TAURUS pendant offers rotating arms of 450-1350 mm, rigid, single-arm, double-arm and tandem configurations, and a four-sided vertical rail that takes shelves up to 60 kg, monitor holders and IV-pole arms. That modularity makes it easy to give each team a different loadout on the same family of columns.

SIMEON's Sim.CARRY supply consoles L06, L10, L12 and L15 and the horizontal A console fit all models, so you can choose a long horizontal head for anaesthesia and a vertical console for surgery within one product line. Read the anaesthesia pendant guide for more on specifying the head-end unit.

Common mistakes

Frequent errors include placing outlets so cables must cross the sterile field, assuming one pendant can serve both teams, forgetting the weight of the anaesthesia machine's accessories, and leaving no spare capacity for future devices. Another is mixing gas connection standards: check that quick couplings match the hospital's pipeline and equipment standard.

Walk through the layout with the anaesthetists, surgeons and nursing staff using a simple mock-up before the ceiling work starts. It is far cheaper to move a line on paper than in a finished theatre.

Planning support

Beckfinity's team can help define the outlet schedule for each pendant, check swing paths and arrange supply of Lojer, MZ Liberec and SIMEON units with installation and maintenance. Ask for a consultation or quote when you have a draft plan.