Abstract
The action of anesthetic drugs on the brain is reflected by changes in the electrical activity of the brain, as measured by scalp electroencephalography (EEG). Typically, anesthetics lead to a larger and slower EEG activity. Although this has been known for many decades, it is only in the last 15 years or so that monitors for intraoperative brain monitoring have become commercially available. This chapter presents the basic principles behind five of those monitors, discussing their use and limitations.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Collura TF. History and evolution of electroencephalographic instruments and techniques. J Clin Neurophysiol. 1993;10(4):476–504.
Caton R. The electric currents of the brain. Br Med J. 1875;2:278.
Berger H. Über das Elektrenkephalogramm des Menschen. Arch Psychiatr Nervenkr. 1929;87:527–70.
Gibbs FA, Gibbs EL, Lenox WG. Effect on electroencephalogram of certain drugs which influence nervous activity. Arch Intern Med. 1937;60:154–66.
Kiersey DK, Bickford RG, Faulconer Jr A. Electro-encephalographic patterns produced by thiopental sodium during surgical operations; description and classification. Br J Anaesth. 1951;23:141–52.
Vanderwolf CH. Are neocortical gamma waves related to consciousness? Brain Res. 2000;855(2):217–24.
Brown EN, Lydic R, Schiff ND. General anesthesia, sleep and coma. N Engl J Med. 2010;363:2638–50.
Hudetz A. Cortical disintegration mechanism of anesthetic-induced unconsciousness. In: Hudetz A, Pearce R, editors. Suppressing the mind. New York: Humana Press; 2010.
Rampil H, Lockhart SH, Eger 2nd EI, Yasuda N, Weiskopf RB, Cahalan MK. The electroencephalographic effects of desflurane in humans. Anesthesiology. 1991;74:434–9.
Rampil IJ. A primer for EEG signal processing in anesthesia. Anesthesiology. 1998;89:980–1002.
Viertö-Oja H, Maja V, Särkelä M, Talja P, Tenkanen N, Tolvanen-Laakso H, et al. Description of the entropy algorithm as applied in the Datex-Ohmeda S/5 entropy module. Acta Anaesthesiol Scand. 2004;48:154–61.
Kreuer S, Wilhelm W. The Narcotrend monitor. Best Pract Res Clin Anaesthesiol. 2006;20(1):111–9.
Zikov T, Bibian S, Dumont GA, Huzmezan M, Ries CR. Quantifying cortical activity during general anesthesia using wavelet analysis. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng. 2006;53(4):617–32.
Prichep LS, Gugino LD, John ER, Chabot RJ, Howard B, Merkin H, et al. The patient state index as an indicator of the level of hypnosis under general anesthesia. Br J Anaesth. 2004;92(3):393–9.
Bibian S, Dumont GA, Zikov T. Dynamic behavior of BIS, M-entropy and NeuroSENSE brain function monitors. J Clin Monit Comput. 2011;25(1):81–7.
Otto KA. EEG power spectrum analysis for monitoring depth of anaesthesia during experimental surgery. Lab Anim. 2008;42:45–61.
Ellerkman RK, Grass A, Hoeft A, Soehle M. The response of the composite variability index to a standardized noxious stimulus during propofol-remifentanil anesthesia. Anesth Analg. 2013;116(3):580–8.
Schell R, Cole D, Lichtor JL, Miller R. Neurophysiologic monitors. In: Atlas of anesthesia, vol. 3. New York: Current Medicine; 2002.
Patel S, White D, Collop N, Crapo J. Bone’s atlas of pulmonary and critical care medicine. New York: Current Medicine; 2002.
Conflict of Interest Statement
GA Dumont is coinventor of the NeuroSENSE monitor (NeuroWave Systems Inc., Cleveland, OH). He has consulted for NeuroWave Systems Inc and GE Healthcare.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Dumont, G.A. (2014). Monitoring the EEG for Assessing Depth of Anesthesia. In: Ehrenfeld, J., Cannesson, M. (eds) Monitoring Technologies in Acute Care Environments. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8557-5_30
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8557-5_30
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-8556-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-8557-5
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)