A manual slide rule for target-controlled infusion of propofol: development and evaluation

We describe the development and evaluation of a simple slide rule that enables the bedside determination of the infusion rate for a particular target plasma concentration of propofol. The infusion rate to reach this target concentration at time (t) is the product of the target concentration, body weight, and a correction factor that depends on the time elapsed from the start of the initial infusion. Our target-controlled infusion (TCI) slide rule, constructed along this principle, performs the multiplications, analogous to the principle of the classical slide rule, as addition of logarithms. We calculated the percentage deviation of the predicted concentration obtained by STANPUMP versus predicted concentrations obtained using the infusion rates determined from the TCI slide rule. The evaluation using STANPUMP simulations showed, for a constant target concentration of 3 micro g/mL of propofol, a mean deviation of 4.05% (max, 6.97%) in the first 15 min and a mean deviation of 0.5% (max, 2.03%) between 16 and 300 min. The mean deviation after changing the target from 3 micro g/mL to 1, 2, 4, or 5 micro g/mL ranged from 1.15% to 17.76%. This pocket-sized TCI slide rule combines the advantages of minimal financial and technical cost with reasonable accuracy.

We describe the development and evaluation of a simple slide rule that enables the bedside determination of the required infusion rate for a particular target plasma concentration. This pocket-sized target-controlled infusion slide rule combines the advantages of minimal financial and technical cost with reasonable accuracy.