The effects of bispectral index monitoring on hemodynamics and recovery profile in developmentally delayed pediatric patients undergoing dental surgery

Effectiveness Assessment of Bispectral Index Monitoring Compared with Conventional Monitoring in General Anesthesia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background and Objective. The Bispectral Index (BIS) is utilized to guide the depth of anesthesia monitoring during surgical procedures. However, conflicting results regarding the benefits of BIS for depth of anesthesia monitoring have been reported in numerous studies. The purpose of this meta-analysis and systematic review was to assess the effectiveness of BIS for depth of anesthesia monitoring. Search Methods. A systematic search of Ovid-MEDLINE, Cochrane, and PubMed was conducted from inception to April 20, 2023. Clinical trial registers and grey literature were also searched, and reference lists of included studies, as well as related review articles, were manually reviewed. Selection Criteria. The inclusion criteria were randomized controlled trials without gender or age restrictions. The control groups used conventional monitoring, while the intervention groups utilized BIS monitoring. The exclusion criteria included duplicates, reviews, animal studies, unclear outcomes, and incomplete data. Data Collection and Analysis. Two independent reviewers screened the literature, extracted data, and assessed methodological quality, with analyses conducted using R 4.0 software. Main Results. Forty studies were included. In comparison to the conventional depth of anesthesia monitoring, BIS monitoring reduced the postoperative cognitive dysfunction risk (RR = 0.85, 95% CI: 0.73∼0.99, P = 0.04), shortened the eye-opening time (MD = -1.34, 95% CI: -2.06∼-0.61, P < 0.01), orientation recovery time (MD = -1.99, 95% CI: -3.62∼-0.36, P = 0.02), extubation time (MD = -2.54, 95% CI: -3.50∼-1.58, P < 0.01), and postanesthesia care unit stay time (MD = -7.11, 95% CI: -12.67∼-1.55, P = 0.01) and lowered the anesthesia drug dosage (SMD = -0.39, 95% CI: -0.63∼-0.15, P < 0.01). Conclusion. BIS can be used to effectively monitor the depth of anesthesia. Its use in general anesthesia enhances the effectiveness of both patient care and surgical procedures.

A Narrative Review Illustrating the Clinical Utility of Electroencephalogram-Guided Anesthesia Care in Children

The major therapeutic end points of general anesthesia include hypnosis, amnesia, and immobility. There is a complex relationship between general anesthesia, responsiveness, hemodynamic stability, and reaction to noxious stimuli. This complexity is compounded in pediatric anesthesia, where clinicians manage children from a wide range of ages, developmental stages, and body sizes, with their concomitant differences in physiology and pharmacology. This renders anesthetic requirements difficult to predict based solely on a child's age, body weight, and vital signs. Electroencephalogram (EEG) monitoring provides a window into children's brain states and may be useful in guiding clinical anesthesia management. However, many clinicians are unfamiliar with EEG monitoring in children. Young children's EEGs differ substantially from those of older children and adults, and there is a lack of evidence-based guidance on how and when to use the EEG for anesthesia care in children. This narrative review begins by summarizing what is known about EEG monitoring in pediatric anesthesia care. A key knowledge gap in the literature relates to a lack of practical information illustrating the utility of the EEG in clinical management. To address this gap, this narrative review illustrates how the EEG spectrogram can be used to visualize, in real time, brain responses to anesthetic drugs in relation to hemodynamic stability, surgical stimulation, and other interventions such as cardiopulmonary bypass. This review discusses anesthetic management principles in a variety of clinical scenarios, including infants, children with altered conscious levels, children with atypical neurodevelopment, children with hemodynamic instability, children undergoing total intravenous anesthesia, and those undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass. Each scenario is accompanied by practical illustrations of how the EEG can be visualized to help titrate anesthetic dosage to avoid undersedation or oversedation when patients experience hypotension or other physiological challenges, when surgical stimulation increases, and when a child's anesthetic requirements are otherwise less predictable. Overall, this review illustrates how well-established clinical management principles in children can be significantly complemented by the addition of EEG monitoring, thus enabling personalized anesthesia care to enhance patient safety and experience.

EEG-Parameter-Guided Anesthesia for Prevention of Emergence Delirium in Children

Background: Emergence delirium (ED) usually occurs in children after surgery with an incidence of 10−80%. Though ED is mostly self-limited, its potential injuries cannot be ignored. Whether electroencephalography (EEG)-parameter-guided anesthesia could reduce the incidence of ED in pediatric surgery has not been fully discussed to date. Methods: Fifty-four boys aged 2−12 years undergoing elective hypospadias surgery under sevoflurane anesthesia were selected. In the EEG-parameter-guided group (E group), sevoflurane was used for anesthesia induction and was maintained by titrating the spectral edge frequency (SEF) to 10−15 and combining the monitoring of density spectral array (DSA) power spectra and raw EEG. While in the control group (C group), anesthesiologists were blinded to the SedLine screen (including SEF, DSA, and raw EEG) and adjusted the intraoperative drug usage according to their experience. Patients with a Pediatric Anesthesia Emergence Delirium (PAED) score > 10 were diagnosed with ED, while patients with a PAED score > 2 were diagnosed with emergence agitation (EA). Results: Finally, a total of 37 patients were included in this trial. The incidence of ED in the E group was lower than in the C group (5.6% vs. 36.8%; p = 0.04), while the incidence of EA was similar in the two groups (61% vs. 78.9%; p = 0.48). Intraoperative parameters including remifentanil dosage and the decrease in mean arterial pressure (MAP) were not different between the two groups (p > 0.05), but the mean end-tidal sevoflurane concentration (EtSevo) was lower in the E group than in the C group (p > 0.05). Moreover, during PACU stay, the extubation time and discharge time of the groups were similar, while the PAED scores within 5 min from extubation and the Face, Legs, Activity, Cry, and Consolability (FLACC) scores within 30 min from extubation were lower in the E group than in the C group. Conclusion: EEG-parameter-guided anesthesia management reduced the incidence of ED in children. Studies with larger sample sizes are needed to obtain more convincing results.

Depth of Anesthesia Monitoring

The electroencephalogram (EEG) can be analyzed in its raw form for characteristic drug-induced patterns of change or summarized using mathematical parameters as a processed electroencephalogram (pEEG). In this article we aim to summarize the contemporary literature pertaining to the commonly available pEEG monitors including the effects of commonly used anesthetic drugs on the EEG and pEEG parameters, pEEG monitor pitfalls, and the clinical implications of pEEG monitoring for anesthesia, pediatrics, and intensive care.

Applications and Limitations of Neuro-Monitoring in Paediatric Anaesthesia and Intravenous Anaesthesia: A Narrative Review

Safe management of anaesthesia in children has been one of the top areas of research over the last decade. After the large volume of articles which focused on the putative neurotoxic effect of anaesthetic agents on the developing brain, the attention and research efforts shifted toward prevention and treatment of critical events and the importance of peri-anaesthetic haemodynamic stability to prevent negative neurological outcomes. Safetots.org is an international initiative aiming at raising the attention on the relevance of a high-quality anaesthesia in children undergoing surgical and non-surgical procedures to guarantee a favourable outcome. Children might experience hemodynamic instability for many reasons, and how the range of normality within brain autoregulation is maintained is still unknown. Neuro-monitoring can guide anaesthesia providers in delivering optimal anaesthetic drugs dosages and also correcting underling conditions that can negatively affect the neurological outcome. In particular, it is referred to EEG-based monitoring and monitoring for brain oxygenation.

Effect of general inhalational anesthesia on intraocular pressure measurements in normal and glaucomatous children

PURPOSE

To investigate the agreement between the intraocular pressure (IOP) measurements in the awake condition and under different stages of general inhalational anesthesia using sevoflurane in both glaucomatous and normal children.

METHODS

A prospective study was performed on 43 glaucomatous children and 30 age-matched controls. Baseline IOP of one eye was measured immediately before general anesthesia using Perkins tonometer and then re-measured under light, intermediate, and deep anesthesia, and then after intubation. Depth of anesthesia was determined using bispectral index pediatric sensor. The agreement between the IOP measurements before and during different stages of anesthesia was analyzed using Bland-Altman plots. Systematic and proportionate deviations between the IOP measurements were analyzed.

RESULTS

The mean age was 58.6 ± 41.99 months. The mean IOP was significantly lower at all stages of anesthesia in both groups. The coefficient of variation was over 20% in all measurements under anesthesia. For all IOP measurements during anesthesia, the limits of agreement were > 7 mmHg difference in the control group and > 20 mmHg in the glaucomatous group. The best agreement was with the IOP measurement after intubation (mean limit of agreement of -1.4 mmHg, 1.96 s range, -8.8-6 mm Hg) in the control group and with the IOP measurement under intermediate anesthesia (mean limit of agreement of -4.2 mmHg, 1.96 s range, -15.1-6.8 mm Hg) in the glaucomatous group.

CONCLUSIONS

Inhalational anesthesia has variable effects on IOP measurement at all stages of anesthesia. Caution should be taken when extrapolating the true IOP from these measurements.

Effect of entropy-guided low-flow desflurane anaesthesia on laryngeal mask airway removal time in children undergoing elective ophthalmic surgery - A prospective, randomised, comparative study

Background and Aims:

In children, entropy-guided titration of isoflurane and sevoflurane leads to faster recovery after anaesthesia. However, role of entropy in recovery following desflurane anaesthesia is not known. Hence, we compared laryngeal mask airway (LMA) removal time and desflurane consumption with entropy and minimal alveolar concentration–guided titration in children given low-flow desflurane anaesthesia.

Methods:

After ethics committee approval and parental consent, 80 American Society of Anesthesiologists grade I–II children, age 2–14 years, undergoing elective ophthalmic surgery were randomised into entropy and minimal alveolar concentration–guided groups. After LMA insertion, anaesthesia was maintained using oxygen, air (FiO₂ 0.5) and desflurane using low fresh gas flow of 0.75 L/min. In the entropy-guided group, desflurane was titrated to maintain state entropy between 40 and 60. In the minimal alveolar concentration–guided group, desflurane was titrated to maintain a minimal alveolar concentration between 1 and 1.3. We recorded LMA removal time (from switching off desflurane at the end of surgery till removal of LMA), haemodynamic parameters, uptake and consumption of desflurane between the groups.

Results:

LMA removal time was significantly decreased in the entropy-guided group in comparison to the minimal alveolar concentration–guided group (4.34 ± 2.03 vs 8.8 ± 2.33 min) (P < 0.0001). Consumption of desflurane was significantly less in the entropy-guided group compared with the minimal alveolar concentration–guided group (18.7 ± 5.07 vs 25.3 ± 8.11 mL) (P < 0.0001).

Conclusion:

Entropy-guided low-flow desflurane anaesthesia is associated with faster LMA removal and reduced consumption of desflurane in children undergoing ophthalmic surgery.

Anesthesia for off-floor dental and oral surgery

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Anesthesia for dentistry is commonly performed outside the operating room. The combination of a shared airway between surgeon and anesthetist, the variety of open airway techniques, and the out-of-operating room setting often results in anxiety and avoidance of dental cases among anesthesia personnel. This review attempts to demystify dental treatment and facilitate the anesthesia provider in providing effective sedation of dental procedures performed in the nonoperating room setting.

RECENT FINDINGS

Specific indications for dental anesthesia improve the patient selection process. Airway assessment and strategies to secure the difficult airway are paramount because of the nature of the procedures and the patients on whom they are performed. Pediatric patients and those with special needs present specific preanesthetic assessment, induction, and management challenges. Emergence delirium is disruptive, possibly dangerous, prolongs recovery time, and may necessitate hospitalization. Simplified techniques and objective recovery criteria are necessary to ensure a safe and smooth discharge to home. Airway fire precautions should not be overlooked given the rare but potential risk of airway fire during dental treatment.

SUMMARY

This article reviews the indications, facility and equipment needs, monitoring requirements, treatment methods, and recovery protocols necessary for the safe administration of off-floor anesthesia for dentistry.

An investigation into the effect of depth of anesthesia on postoperative pain in laparoscopic cholecystectomy surgery: a double-blind clinical trial

Backgrounds and objective

Some studies have shown that deeper anesthesia is more effective on postoperative analgesia and reduces the need for sedative drugs. This study sought to investigate the effect of depth of anesthesia on postoperative pain in laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

Materials and methods

In this double-blind clinical trial, 60 patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy were randomly divided into two groups: low bispectral index (L-BIS=35–44) and high bispectral index (H-BIS=45–55). Anesthesia protocol was the same for both groups (propofol and remifentanil). The pain intensity (at rest and during cough) was evaluated based on the visual analog scale scores in recovery and at 8, 16 and 24 hours after surgery.

Results

The mean pain score was significantly lower in patients in the L-BIS group at all examined times at rest and during cough than that in the H-BIS group. The number of patients in need of additional sedative drug in the H-BIS group in recovery was significantly more than that in the L-BIS group (27 vs 18 patients, P=0.007). The incidence of nausea in the recovery room 8 hours after the surgery was significantly less in the L-BIS group than that in the H-BIS group, while at 16 and 24 hours, no case of nausea was reported in the two groups.

Conclusion

Given the results of this study, it seems that general anesthesia with propofol and remifentanil with L-BIS causes less need for additional analgesic drug and less nausea and vomiting compared to anesthesia with H-BIS.