[The computerized anesthesia record]

The first anaesthetic record was introduced into medical practice in 1940. Since then few changes have been made to it and it remains a rudimentary memorandum. However, since the beginning of the 1980s, interest in automatic recording of the anaesthetic file has been increasing and numerous arguments can be put forward in its favour. Apart from theoretical and experimental arguments, in practice one has to master the automatic collection of data, management of alarms and the technology of the networks involved in order to manage the flow of information by channelling it and organizing it into a hierarchy. Four other objectives can be added to the clinical recording and its medico-legal applications: anaesthetic cost evaluation, quality of care, research and clinical teaching which will provide the basis of anaesthetic epidemiological research.