Constrained closed‐loop control of depth of anaesthesia in the operating theatre during surgery

Abstract

The constrained version of generalized predictive control (GPC) which employs the quadratic programming (QP) approach is evaluated for on-line administration of an anaesthetic drug in the operating theatre during surgery. In the first instance, a patient simulator was developed using a physiological model of the patient and the necessary control software was validated via a series of extensive simulation experiments. Such a validated system was then transferred into the operating theatre for a series of clinical evaluation trials. The clinical trials, which were performed with little involvement of the design engineer, led to a good regulation of unconsciousness using fixed-parameters as well the adaptive version of the algorithm. Furthermore, the constrained algorithm displayed good robustness properties against disturbances such as high stimulus levels and allowed for safe and economically effective administration of the anaesthetic agent isoflurane.

Clinical Decision Support and Closed-Loop Control for Cardiopulmonary Management and Intensive Care Unit Sedation Using Expert Systems

“…However, control algorithms have been developed, simulated, and implemented for the related problem of closed-loop control of general anesthesia. The first of these have focused on the control of inhalation anesthesia and several adaptive control algorithms have been proposed; see [14]–[21] and the references therein. These algorithms have been shown to provide superior control of general inhalation anesthesia in simulations and animal studies.…”