Use of Heart Rate Variability for the Detection of the Depth of Anesthesia

Automated drug administration by closed-loop systems has been proposed to optimize drug administration during anesthesia and sedation.General anaesthesia is associated with a reduction in heart rate variability (HRV) compared to awake situation. It is a measure of activity of the sympathetic and parasympathetic components of the utonomous nervous system due to Surgical stress. The system is designed to track a reference hypnotic depth level, while maintaining adequate analgesia. The hypothesis of reduction in HRV predicts different levels of an aesthesia depth. The objective of the work has been to develop a system which independently controls the intravenous infusion rates of the analgesic drug remifentanil. The system is designed to track a reference hypnotic depth level, while maintaining adequate analgesia.