Monitor of depth of anesthesia to detect and prevent awareness during general anesthesia

Drexel University
posted on 02/08/2010

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The proposed product is a medical device for evaluation of the depth of anesthesia to detect and avert awareness during surgery under general anesthesia or sedation. The device is based on functional near-infrared (fNIR) technology and relies on optical techniques derived from the physical principles of light absorption and reflectance to detect changes in the hemodynamic response of the cortex to brain activation. A monitoring apparatus for objectively and continuously quantifying the depth of anesthesia of a patient during surgery would not only reduce the incidence of patient awareness, but also would allow the anesthesiologist to administer the minimal dose of anesthetic required to achieve the desired depth of anesthesia. The proposed system is intended to be utilized in any settings where sedation is given.

As many as 95 million patients annually in the United States undergo procedures for which anesthesia depth monitoring would prove useful. About 20 million of these procedures are performed under general anesthesia. While the incidence of awareness under anesthesia is small, patients who experience such awareness feel excruciating pain but cannot do anything to alert the physicians performing the procedure. Preventing awareness under anesthesia would spare the patients significant emotional and psychological problems, and reduce liability exposure to healthcare providers. The monitoring device is made of off-the-shelf components, and the fNIR probe is inexpensive and can be a disposable component of the system to be used in every general anesthesia or sedation procedure, thus providing for a very large market opportunity.

- Monitoring depth of anesthesia under general anesthesia or sedation to prevent patient awareness

- Monitoring depth of anesthesia as an aid in dosing the anesthesia to avoid overdosing to reduce associated cost of anesthetic used and accelerate recovery from anesthesia

Unlike currently available similar devices that rely on measuring electrocardiographic (ECG), electroencephalographic (EEG), auditory and somatosensory evoked potentials, and craniofacial electromographic (EMG) signals, Drexel’s anesthesia monitor uses functional near infrared (fNIR) technology that directly measures hemodynamic parameters of brain activity associated with the effects of anesthesia.