Awareness Test Doesn't Make The Grade

Main Category: Pain / Anesthetics
Article Date: 05 Dec 2008 - 6:00 PDT

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Being awake during surgery after being given general anesthesia is one of those bad dreams that sometimes comes true.

The bispectral index (BIS) is a formula that uses the values of measurements of the brain's electrical activity to come up with a single number that is supposed to measure "anesthetic depth."

More than half of the operating rooms in the United States have BIS technology. But it's been controversial, partly because the company that sells it has kept the formula secret.

This year, researchers reported the results of a study that tested the BIS monitoring in a 2,000-person randomized trial. BIS-guided anesthesia was no better at identifying anesthesia awareness than another kind of monitoring. This is another case when the results of an independent clinical trial have called into question the value of a widely adopted medical practice.

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Harvard Health Letter