NEWS BRIEF
Device prevents awakening during surgery
You may soon have a device that promises to alleviate anxiety for surgery patients — and improves outcomes. Anesthesiologists may at last be able to gauge doses of anesthesia more accurately so that this scenario can be avoided: the surgical patient who unexpectedly regains consciousness but is unable to communicate. The Bispectral Index, introduced at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, NY, helps doctors calibrate doses to prevent patients from regaining awareness in the operating room. A flexible sensor attaches to the patient’s forehead and records EEGs, giving anesthesiologists a direct measure of how deeply the patient is asleep.
Studies conducted at Emory University in Atlanta have shown that monitoring patients with the device improves outcomes patients recover better and are eligible for earlier discharge from the recovery room because of their more alert status.
Doctors previously relied on blood pressure and other vital signs to monitor anesthetized sleep level and have tended to administer slightly more anesthetic than needed to avoid the chance of patient awareness during surgery. This new method measures the effect of pain killers only, not the full combination of pain killers, sedatives, and paralytic drugs, and allows anesthesiologists to customize drugs.
Unexpected wake-ups occur in at least 40,000 of the nation’s 20 million surgeries.
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