Anaesthesia workload measurement devices: qualitative systematic review.

Area of Science:

• Anesthesiology
• Human Factors Engineering
• Cognitive Psychology

Background:

• Effective management of mental workload is vital for patient safety in anesthesia.
• Current tools for assessing mental workload lack a gold standard, leading to inconsistencies in clinical and research applications.
• This review addresses the need for standardized mental workload assessment in anesthesia.

Approach:

• A systematic literature search was conducted across major databases (Cochrane, EMBASE, MEDLINE, SCOPUS, Web of Science).
• Two authors independently screened titles and performed data extraction for relevant studies.
• Included were primary research papers focusing on mental workload assessment tools specifically within the field of anesthesia.

Key Points:

• Six distinct mental workload measurement tools were identified across the 24 included studies.
• Reliability data was available for the Borg rating scales and Vibrotactile device, but not for most other tools.
• Subjective measures (Borg scales, NASA-TLX, task-oriented) are accessible and quick; objective measures (vibrotactile, eye-tracking) are more resource-intensive.

Conclusions:

• Mental workload assessment in anesthesia is an evolving area critical for enhancing patient and anesthetist safety.
• Self-reported mental workload measures demonstrate the strongest evidence base among currently available tools.
• Further research is needed to establish reliable and validated objective measures for mental workload in anesthesia.