Target-controlled infusion: A comparative, prospective, observational study of the conventional TCI pump and the...

Empirically adjusted, standard drug doses fail to address interindividual pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics variability. Target-controlled infusion (TCI) delivers drugs in calibrated boluses to achieve and maintain a selected target plateau drug level (plasma or effect site). Interactive total intravenous anesthesia (iTIVA^™) smartphone software simulates TCI and employs 31 established pharmacokinetic models for 11 different intravenous agents and is coupled with standard volumetric infusion pumps for administering TCI.

This prospective, observational, study investigates the degree of agreement between iTIVA and a conventional TCI pump (CTP) for the volume of propofol infused using the Schnider pharmacokinetic model in adult patients of either sex undergoing oncosurgery lasting 1-3 h under total intravenous anesthesia. Bland-Altman analysis of 124 data pairs from 30 patients provided bias, precision, and limits of agreement between the volumes infused by CTP and iTIVA (V-CTP and V-iTIVA) during specific identical time periods. Spearman's rho and Kendall's tau rank correlation coefficients provided the degree of association between V-CTP and V-iTIVA.

Spearman's rho and Kendall's tau were 0.996 and 0.964, respectively. Bias or the mean of differences was -0.02, while the limits of agreement were 0.58 and -0.63, respectively (Bland-Altman plot). The maximum allowed difference of 2 ml was much larger than the 95% confidence intervals for the limits of agreement. The Mountain plot was short tailed (-1.28 to 1.55) and centred over zero (0.01).

The volume of propofol infused using TCI pump was similar to that calculated by iTIVA in identical time periods, confirming the clinical applicability of iTIVA.