Method to detect when patients wake during surgery fails to impress
Baku, August 22 (AZERTAC). A newer technology intended to alert doctors when patients are regaining consciousness while under anesthesia is no better than conventional monitoring systems in lowering the incidence of “anesthesia awareness,” new research shows.
In fact, the newer system - which measures electrical activity in the brain and is known as bispectral index (BIS) monitoring - actually picked up on fewer incidents than the standard system, which measures the amount of anesthesia when a patient exhales.
Anesthesia awareness takes place when a patient under general anesthesia can remember what happened during surgery. It occurs in up to 1 percent of high-risk patients, or 20,000 to 40,000 U.S. patients a year.
Researchers have pointed out that the standard system is also simpler and less expensive to use.
But that doesn`t mean there isn`t a place for the newer technology, said several scientists.
Generally, systems to monitor awareness have focused on the cardio-respiratory system while those monitoring the nervous system have lagged behind.
Neither Schlesinger, McAllister nor Nampiaparampil were involved with the study, which appears in the August 17 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Patients at high risk for anesthesia awareness can include those who have undergone trauma in an accident and have unstable vital signs, or someone who can`t tolerate high levels of anesthesia, Schlesinger explained. This group of patients also includes those who regularly consume large quantities of alcohol and those taking sedatives or certain kinds of painkillers.
For this study, the researchers randomized 6,000 patients at high risk for anesthesia awareness to either BIS-guided anesthesia or ETAC-guided anesthesia.
Seven patients (0.24 percent) in the BIS group recalled being aware during the procedure, compared to 2 (0.07 percent) in the ETAC group.
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