[Possibilities of computer use in anesthesia and intensive care medicine]

Today anaesthesiologists are on familiar terms with computers. In fact, computer technology has come to stay especially in the monitoring and documentation of measurement data; no new developments in this field are possible without the aid of computers. Computer-monitored respirators, infusion pumps or anaesthetic vaporizers have been developed and tested in practice, but their use is at present still restricted to a small select circle of specialists. However, their routine use can be expected in the very near future. In the fields of training and communication of knowledge, computers are still in the developmental stage. Although so-called "expert systems" are already in use in certain fields of medicine, their application in anaesthesia remains an exception. Progress in this direction does not really depend so much on the availability of suitable computers--they are in fact already in operation. The crux of the problem will be the readiness of anaesthesiologists and anaesthesists to feed the computers with appropriate programmes and to accept computers as partners in their work and in the field of training.