Pain and Stress Measurement During General Anesthesia Using the Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia

Authors

  • Janosch Frederic Kunczik Chair for Medical Information Technology, Helmholtz-Institute for Biomedical Engineering, RWTH Aachen University, Pauwelsstrasse 20, 52074 Aachen, Germany
  • Marucs Koeny Chair for Medical Information Technology, Helmholtz-Institute for Biomedical Engineering, RWTH Aachen University, Pauwelsstrasse 20, 52074 Aachen, Germany
  • Czaplik Michael Department of Anesthesiology, University Hospital RWTH Aachen, Aachen, Germany
  • Vladimir Blazcek The Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics, CTU Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
  • Steffen Leonhardt Chair for Medical Information Technology, Helmholtz-Institute for Biomedical Engineering

Keywords:

Pain, Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia, Heart Rate Variability, Analgesia Nociception Index, Surgical Analgesia Index

Abstract

Measuring intraoperative pain and stress during general anesthesia is still problematic. Instead of having access to meaningful and robust pain measurements, anesthetists must use their experience and intuition to ensure a proper pain therapy. The correct dosage of analgesics is crucial for a stable patient, since underdosing may lead to neurogenic shock. Overdosing can result in critically low blood pressures and heart rates.

Several possible approaches towards measuring pain have been proposed in the last years. We briefly summarize them and evaluate their usability in a general anesthesia setting. A promising approach is given by the Analgesia Nociception Index. We developed an advanced algorithm, called the Surgical Analgesia Index, which improves its concept for the use in a fully connected smart operating room. This paper is dedicated to its description, preliminary validation and comparison against the original index.

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Published

2017-12-30

Issue

Vol. 47 No. 4 (2017)

Section

Original Research

License

Copyright (c) 2018 Janosch Frederic Kunczik, Marucs Koeny, Czaplik Michael, Vladimir Blazcek, Steffen Leonhardt

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