Modeling and Closed-loop Control of Depth of Anaesthesia

Scientific background

An increasing degree of automation and informatisation of dynamical processes enables higher quality of achieved goals, lower costs and lower eventual impact on humans and nature alike. Automatic control is an infrastructural field that comprises mathematical modelling, simulation of dynamical systems and automatic control methods. The systematic approach enables the use of control methods in various technical and nontechnical fields, therefore, the advances in automatic control are very useful in interdisciplinary projects.

Likewise, there are many processes in medicine that can be improved by automatic control. In the literature, there have been some approaches to closed-loop control of depth of anaesthesia, but none seem to have influenced clinical practice. Within the project the investigators will develop a system for closed-loop control of depth of anaesthesia using BIS index, which will be based on a predictive model and will consider individual properties of each patient that are obtained from the measurements.

Problem identification

To perform a general anaesthesia, it is necessary to use substances, which enable deep unconsciousness, analgesia, amnesia and muscle relaxation, all required for performing a surgery or a diagnostic procedure. General anaesthesia and related dynamic activities in the human body is a complicated process, which includes pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic mechanisms, which have not been fully studied yet.