To print: Select File and then Print from your browser's menu --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Title: Smart System Can Manage Anesthesia Delivery URL: http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/3EB0E.htm Doctor's Guide October 21, 1997
SAN DIEGO, CA. -- October 21, 1997 -- Exceedingly smart computers capable of making some decisions may one day be another set of hands in the operating room. The smart machines might serve as an anesthesiologist's right hand, controlling the intravenous delivery of anesthetic drugs with uncanny precision, freeing the anesthesiologist to focus on other critical medical tasks such as administering transfusions and other medications. The results of laboratory research using a fully automated system for the administering of intravenous anesthetic medication were presented at the American Society of Anesthesiologists annual meeting. The system performed with 90 percent accuracy in the laboratory, according to Rob J. Roy, M.D., D.Eng.Sc., an anesthesiologist and electronic engineer at Albany Medical College. Anesthesiologists can keep patients comfortable and unconscious during surgery by carefully controlling the delivery of anesthetic medication. This is a delicate process that requires administering just the right amount of drug and fine-tuning it as needed to maintain unconsciousness without depressing the patient's heart rate and blood pressure. The experimental system operates a computer-driven syringe pump that delivers anesthetic medication through a tube placed in the patient's arm. The system also has two brains that monitor the depth of anesthesia (level of unconsciousness) and the patient's vital signs throughout surgery. These electronic components continually feed information to a supervisory module that uses the information from the two brains to fine-tune the delivery of medication through the syringe pump. The first brain is a neural network that can be taught to make intelligent decisions in much the same manner as the human brain. The neural network monitors anesthesia depth by analyzing brain wave patterns known as mid-latency auditory-evoked potentials (MLAEPs). MLAEPs are electrical impulses produced by the brain and recorded on electroencephalograms (charts of brain activity). MLAEPs change in predictable ways with changes in anesthesia and may be a reliable measure of anesthetic depth. By feeding data to the neural network on actual MLAEP responses to various levels of medication, anesthesiologists can teach the network to anticipate a patient's response to a given drug level and to accurately monitor the depth of anesthesia. The system's second brain is a fuzzy logic evaluator that monitors changes in heart rate and blood pressure in response to the delivery of anesthetic medication, calculates the effectiveness of the current medication level based on these vital signs and raises or lowers anesthetic concentrations as needed, Dr. Roy said. Fuzzy logic has been used successfully to automate everything from railroad systems to camera lenses and washing machines. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright © 1999 P\S\L Consulting Group Inc. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of P\S\L content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of P\S\L. P\S\L shall not be liable for any errors, omissions or delays in this content or any other content on its sites, newsletters or other publications, nor for any decisions or actions taken in reliance on such content. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This news story was printed from *Doctor's Guide to the Internet* located at http://www.docguide.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Return to News Story Page This site is maintained by webmaster@pslgroup.com Please contact us with any comments, problems or bugs. All contents Copyright (c) 1998 P\S\L Consulting Group Inc. All rights reserved.