Computer assistance in the control of depth of anaesthesia

A control system was used to bring the tension of anaesthetic in the brain to any value specified (in MAC units) by the anaesthetist and then maintain it constant until a new value was specified. The control was applied to a volatile agent but allowance was automatically made for the anaesthetic effect of any nitrous oxide concomitantly administered by the anaesthetist. The inspired concentration required to achieve the desired brain tension was calculated from a model of the patient and set automatically on the vaporizer. The quantification of the model was matched to the patient on the basis mainly of body mass and periodic non-invasive measurements of alveolar ventilation and cardiac output. In order to adapt the model to the patient an arterial blood sample was taken every 30 min to obtain the arterial tension of halothane for use as feedback. The system has been tested on eight Alsatian dogs. After omitting results affected by avoidable errors, the SD of the measured-to-computed arterial tension ratio was less than 10%.