Comparison of 2 Depth of Sedation Indices in the Intensive Care Unit

Overview

In the intensive care unit of the Free University hospital of Brussels, sedated patients are standardly monitored with the Masimo SEDline device to see how deeply a patient is asleep. During this study we want to attach 1 extra device to 30 sedated patients, lying in the intensive care unit. This device, called the NeuroSENSE brain monitor from Neurowave systems, uses a different scale to indicate the ideal depth of sedation. In total, both devices will be hung on a patient for 2 times 35 minutes. At minute 33, a RASS score will be determined in each patient. This score will be determined by talking to the patient or administering a pain stimulus. Based on the reaction of the patient an estimation can be made how deeply a patient is sleeping. Our goal is to find out which device correlates best with the effective clinical state of the patient.

Adequate sedation level is important for patient comfort and safety. As under- and oversedation are common several devices are used that measure the Depth of Anesthesia (DoA). Each device uses its proprietary algorithm to calculate a depth of anesthesia index and each index has its own optimal range. The optimal range for the NeuroSense monitor (NeuroWave Systems inc., Cleveland, OH, USA) is between 40 and 60, while the optimal range for the SEDline monitor (Masimo Corporation; Irvine, CA, USA) is between 25 and 50. When the device indicates a value within these limits, the patient is optimally anesthetized for a surgical procedure. In this study, 30 patients will be monitored simultaneously by both the Neurowave and SedLine devices. The study will determine which device is the most accurate and therefore the most ideal for use in the ICU.